PALMYRA AND JOYCE CHIPPENDALE’S MEMORIAL SERVICE
Every other Christmas since the death of their mother, the Mahy children—Sara, Todd, Lisa, Mary—have met for a week at Christmastime from their now widely separated homes for a family get together. They gather with their families and inlaws and good friends and stay in a huge rented house with multiple bedrooms at the beach. Kathe and I, as Todd’s parents-in-law, have come for many years and so has Joyce Chippendale, Craig’s mother. This year she couldn’t come. She had broken her hip and then had Covid and was too weak to come. She died in February.
So this was her memorial service for the people in her Palmyra community that she was so attached to and other relatives. I only knew Joyce and her dog, Scooby, from these Christmas visits but missed her when she couldn’t come because she was a radiant and always cheerful person. She died at 94.
Before the service, when family were preparing getting ready for the service, Susie and I walked around the very picturesque town square at Palmyra which the United Methodist Church faced. It has the feel of Williamsburg or an old New England town.
The service was in the small but beautiful white church. While the congregation was mostly older women including a knitting group that Joyce was part of, the minister was Sung Yoo, a Korean with an accent so strong that Joyce had once confessed to him that she couldn’t understand a word he said. I couldn’t either. Because he was such a warm and outgoing person and had been such a friend to Joyce, words didn’t matter. In addition he had a wonderful, powerful voice that led the congregational singing. Accompanying himself on the guitar he sang the Lord’s Prayer beautifully. Then Kjersti and Anders Chippendale, sister and brother, told stories of their grandmother and how she had impacted their lives. And then we all sang Edelweiss together with the preacher leading the way. It was a wonderful service followed by a the women of the church hosting us in the church hall next to the church.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/061kN71vjEZLStaoCiHFslFtA
During the afternoon relatives came to Joyce’s house to tell stories and then in the early evening Mary and Craig hosted us at the most impressive entrance to a restaurant I have ever been seen. The Lodge: Tasting Room and Taphouse was on the Mount Ida Reserve, a 5000 acre estate. We drove along a dark fenced road through for what seemed like a mile of gates to a grand building that appeared to be more a wedding event place than a restaurant and then all sat around a huge circular table. It was a wonderful evening.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 