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Susie Memory (Baird)
Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear classmates. The messages you have sent regarding Stella's passing have been so comforting and so helpful. You have wrapped me up in a big warm blanket.
I thought you might be interested in the words of remembrance that I spoke at Stella's funeral yesterday, quoting many of you and Charles Stott. I can't imagine how I will live the rest of my life without Stella, but I know that I will always be grateful for your compassion and kindness.
Words of Remembrance at Stella's Funeral
May 9, 2018
I am Susie, Stella's twin, and I have known her since before we were born. There are dozens of images of Stella in the boxes of photographs that I have at home.
There is the golden-haired baby Stella, tripping along beside me as we gather eggs from our grandmother's hen house. There is the curious child Stella, getting ready for our cousin Elizabeth's wedding. There is the confident almost-grown Stella, standing next to me at the old Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, waiting to receive our high school diplomas.
As we grew older, our lives became more complex, but we never stopped laughing. Who could forget the time that Stella rode the bus from Raleigh to visit me at Wake Forest? I was comfortably seated in the Winston-Salem bus station, and Stella walked right behind me without seeing me and caught a cab to the college. Hours passed before we figured out what had happened and finally got together.
Then there was the time we drove to Memphis to see Elvis Presley's Graceland. Each room was decorated more outrageously than the one before it, with the result that we started laughing and were unable to stop. I hurried us along on our tour, worried that true Elvis fans would not appreciate our reaction to the King's decorative talents.
In reading through the cards and letters that people have written about Stella in the last few days, I am struck by the appearance of some common themes. There are many comments about Stella's sweet smile, her gentle manner, and her kind and generous nature. I would add to these the observation that Stella did not have a mean bone in her body. She was incapable of deceit. She would not hurt a flea.
Stella was one of the rarest of individuals--a person who was truly herself and who was happy in her own skin. She loved her husband, David, and she loved her home. Her needs were simple. She did not require expensive jewelry or exotic trips or designer clothes. She wanted nothing more than to be at home with David, tending to their cats, drinking the coffee David made for her, and having a good book to read.
I am blessed to have had Stella as my sister. And as to what she is doing now, I like the image suggested by Charles Stott, a high school classmate. He wrote that she has "entered the Church Triumphant, with a reinvigorated new body in Christ. Right now Stella is dancing down the streets of gold, and maybe even playing bass fiddle in the holy symphony."
You probably know that "Stella" is the Latin word for "star." With that in mind, I would like to close with an adapted quotation from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
When she shall die,
Take her and cut her out in little stars
And she will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
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