Virginia Brummel

2:00 AM January 5, 2009 - another soul leaves/dies/departs/passes away . . .

Born Virginia Irene Jones on November 26, 1917 in Mountain Grove, MO. Grew up in Chanute, KS. Dies Virginia Brummel. And in between a life.

I remember that when we played the game People Are Funny, my sister and I would make sure that Mom drew the slap-happy card. She acted that crazy slap-happy face with such abandon that it made us roar with laughter.

I remember the Sunday fried chicken and the special crescent rolls at Thanksgiving. Oh and the spanking when I did not tell her I would be late home from school. And her quick action when I swallowed a part of a toy whistle (jagged edges caught in my throat); wrapped and rushed to the doctor.

Her father Alonzo Jones had the same birthday as I did and I always felt special because of that, even though I never really knew him. But my sister and I knew her mother Moravia Testerman Jones; from a train trip to Chanute, Kansas - sucking on ice cubes through wash cloths and playing the old victrola - "Come in and out the Window" was my favorite song to play on that seemingly ancient machine.

I remember the perms my mother gave us - and the costumes she sewed. Quick to get angry and just as quick to laugh. I remember my Mom playing the piano, Good Night Irene was one of her favorites songs to play.

Mom grew up in a large family - brothers Carl, Vernon, Wendell, and Alfred - sisters Bernice, Clarice, Estelle, and Mary Catherine who died as an infant. I remember the sadness in my Mom's voice when she told us about that sister. Now Alfred is her only living sibling.

And then there is my sister, Kathryn Ann Carpenter and my brother-in-law Tom - their two children Kimberley and Scott (my Mom's grandchildren) and their children (my Mom's great grandchildren) Nicholas and Nathan Scott's sons and Allison (Kimberley's adopted daughter).

I remember the back-yard family gatherings - hand churned ice cream. We had a lot of cousins. We were a family who liked to play games. The card game Pounce played with Aunts, Uncles, and those cousins, made for many an exciting evening. Sometimes just the four of us - my Dad (Melvin Oren Brummel), my Mom, Kathy, and I - would play intense games of Pinochle.

I remember my Mom telling me to be nice to a girl at school who was bugging me. The advice worked and the girl and I became friends.

I remember the cold hamburger patty served to me at dinner, because I came home late from dance classes. I remember our Sunday lunches at Carlos O Kelly's here in Springfield - Mom liked the cheese enchilada. I remember the Halloween costume I made her with a wand and a crown. She lived at The Gardens then.

The trip to visit my sister for my Mom's 80th birthday gave my Mom a chance to spend time with her grand-children and great-grandchildren. And then there was the last trip we took there one Christmas and that Christmas we spent in the Emergency Room because Mom tripped and fell at my Nephew's house. But she spoke not one word of complaint while the doctor stitched up her forehead. During one of those trips we got bumped to first class because of Mom's walker. We ate filet mignon.

I remember another trip my Mom and I took - by car from Cortez, CO to Durango, CO. She had slipped on the ice which resulted in a compound fracture to her humerus. The doctors in Cortez did not feel confident about setting the bone. Again, my Mom did not utter one word of complaint during the long drive.

And I remember that first trip to Christian Health Care West - Mom's dementia has gotten much worse and she had to leave The Gardens. In those early months at CHCW we were still able to go out on Sundays for lunch.

I had a feeling that this would be your last Christmas. And yet that makes little difference, even though your death played in my head this past week. I miss you Mom. I hope that you do not mind that I decided on a service with a cremation. But I will take your ashes to Dad's grave in Dallas.

"All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier." Walt Whitman

Visitation will be from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Thursday, January 8, 2009 in Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home, 500 E. Walnut St.

Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m. Friday in the funeral home.