A fine crowd of Constance Hand Jordan Morris’s descendents, in-laws, staff, and friends ascended the hill to Picnic Rock, where they buried her ashes, admired the incredible view of New England farmland at its unspoiled best, and tried to avoid stepping in the very large cow patty that had been deposited right in front of the rock that morning. It was generally agreed that Connie would have appreciated the cow patty as much as the ornate marble urn in which she went into the ground. Later we drank gin & tonics and shared stories about this brilliant, remarkable woman, whose 98 years encompassed so much adventure, tragedy, irony, and wit.
We learned, for instance, that ten-year-old Connie had, when packing for a family vacation in Europe, emptied her suitcase of clothing and filled it instead with books. The exchange was not discovered until the steamship was well underway, and so Connie spent her summer on the Continent wearing one dress, but with plenty to read.
We also heard from Andrew's brother Geoffrey that Connie had served as Vice President of the “Youngest Club,” an institution open only to youngest siblings. Geoff and Connie established the Youngest Club when he was ten and she was in her 60s. Their first rule was: "No hand-me-downs." With both of his big brothers present, Geoff did not reveal much more about the agenda or activities of the Youngest Club, but we know they got at least as far as building a club house half-way up one of Connie's big pine trees.
It was hard to believe this was goodbye to the house at Sharon -- one of Andrew's beloved childhood haunts. Connie's great-grandchildren had one last swim in the pool while her grandchildren divided up some of her oil paintings and photographs. When the UPS package we sent ourselves gets here, we'll scan a couple of pictures so you can see what a stunner she was, on top of everything else.
1 comment:
holy moly! i have a lot of blog to catch up on. yay!
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