"Thank you, Lord, for the life of Minerva Brown."

The preacher said this at Aunt Minerva's graveside service, and it struck a chord with me. We should be thankful for each unique individual in our families and in our lives....and Aunt Minerva was definitely unique. She was instrumental in the creation of The Brimson History Book, and the amazingly vast wealth of genealogy information she collected. She kept the family farm in the family and it is now a Missouri Century Farm. She tried to keep Brimson going. She threw an annual get together the first Sunday in June for years to keep us all in touch. She was the last Maxwell. Now she is laid to rest by her husband and her sons, the older brothers she never knew, her older sister, her parents, grandparents, great grandparents. She is practically in view of the family farm where she grew up. The Cat Creek Church is still functioning, they still have regular services. She decorated family graves for many years, now I'll take them over. Mom, Dad, John, Lisa, Max, Logan, Kevin, Katie, & I represented our family. Robin represented the Crawfords. Aunt Chardy couldn't come, Jim is in ICU. Aunt Minerva wrote her own obituary & eulogy. how classy is that? and there was a saxophone player at the funeral service and graveside. that was different and nice. I cried as I always do. Not because I'm sad that her long bout with pnemonia is over, but for the past, for everyone we've lost. and because in that casket, she was a dead ringer for Grandma Grace. She outlived her husband, her sons, her parents, all her siblings. she was living in the nursing home and hospital, not the house she and Uncle Dale built.