Somewhere, she’s getting a kick out of the attention…

July 8, 2009 in Uncategorized

That awesome obituary I posted for a woman named Nancy Lee Hixson?

Her son, Chris Hixson, wrote me about it.

(Scroll down bottom of the comments on that post and you'll find his note.)

Here's what he had to say:

My mother has been popping up around the web this week, but her obituary's inclusion on your site is the one that makes me most happy. Thank you all for the kind words about her life and her writing. I assure you mom wrote the obit herself, periodically sharing copies with me (over seven years) for input and review. I added only the 'Now Voyager' send-off (without her knowledge, but it was appropriate) and the thank yous to the caregivers. Everything contained in it is true, and her obit doesn't even scratch the surface of the life she lived, and that we shared with her. Thank you all for your kind words. Somewhere, she's getting a kick out of the attention.

I was so touched.

There's a copy of Life is a Verb in his future.

His note about his mom is a great impetus for all of us to get out that half-used up legal pad full of grocery lists and books we want to read some day … and write our own obituary.

Send me yours and I'll post what I can!

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

4 comments to " Somewhere, she’s getting a kick out of the attention… "


Betsy

July 9, 2009 AT 9:52AM

It’s so appropriate that Chris’s comment is the final one on that post. Hope it can stay that way.

Naomi

July 9, 2009 AT 10:07AM

I first got a kick out of your posting about this adorable woman because of the connection I have with Ohio. Then as I read it, I was touched and moved by how many people had been TOUCHED by her, as she lived her life.

Thanks Patti for posting this …

Kim Mailhot

July 9, 2009 AT 11:02AM

Here’s what it will read one day in the Year 2070 :

Kim (nee de Broin) Mailhot, aka the Rock Fairy, 104, died in her sleep last night, curled against the back of the love of her life, David Paul Mailhot, 109, also deceased.

She Loved BIG.

She leaves behind her well-loved dear ones to carry on the endless and infinitely satisfying soul-job of spreading love in the world.

There will be a music-filled, artful, brightly decorated celebration of their lives held by the Lake. Bring on the flowers ! Her favorites were poppies, lilacs, peonies, gerber daisies and tulips. As for donations, give your time, and/or your money, to making every child that you meet know that they are beautiful, valuable and strong. It is what Kim loved to do.

“Love is the Answer to Every Question.”

You inspire me so much, Lady ! Your words have helped me change my life. I want you to really know that.
Love you Big !
Kim aka The Rock Fairy

(My Blog Post with my Irresistible Obituary can be found here : http://queen-of-arts.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-irrestistable-obituary.html)

Kim

July 9, 2009 AT 1:21PM

That woman’s obituary is awesome and poignant on so many levels. Since my mother’s death in April, I’ve been reading all sorts of books on death and grieving. Currently I’m in the middle of “Nothing Left Unsaid” by Mary Polce-Lynch, PhD, which is about writing and leaving “Legacy Letters” for our loved ones. Nancy Lee Hixson went one step better and left a legacy for the whole world.

Reading Hixson’s obituary left me with some pangs of regret, however. My mother did not have a proper obituary, just a brief death notice placed by the funeral home in charge. There was no obituary in the local paper where she lived or where I live, only in the paper that the majority of people read in the area where she was buried. I feel like I failed her in countless ways.

It was not until I talked to your husband, Mr. Brilliant, about my mother’s book collection, that I realized her life was interesting. As he gently extracted details from me on how she came to live in the middle of North Carolina, I was silently amazed at how extraordinary her journey had been. I am grateful to him for cracking the door open for me, allowing that illuminating sliver of light to come in, for until that moment I had believed my mother’s life to be relatively unremarkable.

Patti, my mother had dozens of those “half-used up legal pad[s]full of grocery lists and books we want to read someday.” I saved a few, in hopes of discovering some other part of her I never knew. I think Robert Penn Warren said it best in his poem, “Grackles, Goodbye” – “…only, only, in the name of Death do we learn the true name of Love.”