Cannot Wait to Get to Heaven - Fannie Flagg [40]
Died
Died suddenly
Died peacefully
Passed away
Left this world for another
Met his/her Lord on
Was taken to heaven
Was delivered safe in the arms of his/her Lord and Savior,
Departed this life
Made his/her transition from this earth
Is happy at the side of his/her Maker
After finishing, she put it in the drawer. Somehow, writing this one, she didn’t feel like trying to show off her literary skills. This one she would write from her heart.
Mrs. Elner Jane Shimfissle, longtime resident of Elmwood Springs, died yesterday at the Caraway Hospital in Kansas City. A fun-loving person who knew no strangers, she enjoyed gospel music, visiting with neighbors, feeding the birds, and was a friend to all living things. She delighted in making fig preserves and decorating and hiding Easter eggs in her backyard for neighborhood children. She was preceded in death by her husband, Will Shimfissle, sisters, Mrs. Ida Jenkins and Mrs. Gerta Nordstrom. She is survived by her niece, Mrs. Norma Warren of Elmwood Springs, great-niece, Mrs. Dena Nordstrom O’Malley of Palo Alto, California, great-niece, Linda Warren, and five-year-old grandniece, Apple Warren, now residing in St. Louis, and her beloved cat, Sonny. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her. The family requests that all donations be made to the Humane Society.
After she completed the first draft, she put the obit in the basket on her desk. She would add all the funeral details later. She then got up and went into her photo file and found the two pictures of Elner. One she had taken sixteen years ago, of Elner holding an orange cat, the one with the six toes. She had been so proud that day. The cat had just turned twenty-five and she had given it a birthday party. Cathy sat there for a moment, looking at Elner’s smiling face, then took out her checkbook and wrote a check to the Humane Society in memory of Elner, it was the least she could do. After she finished writing the check, she sat back and wondered where her life might have taken her if it had not been for Elner. She certainly would not have been able to go to college. She had a college scholarship but her family had not had the money to pay for room and board, once she got there. She had been heartbroken at the time and had told Mrs. Shimfissle. The next day, when she walked by the house, Mrs. Shimfissle called out to her, “Hey, Cathy, come here a minute.” When Cathy walked up, she had handed her a blue envelope with her name on it. When she opened it, to her surprise she saw that it contained ten one-hundred-dollar bills.
“I can’t take this, Mrs. Shimfissle.”
“Don’t be silly, it’s just a little egg money, besides it will make me happy to think I’m helping somebody get a good education. We need more smart people in the world.”
Cathy had paid the money back, of course, but she had always hoped to be able to return the favor in some other way, do something really nice for Elner, but now it was too late—she was gone.
A Heavenly Walk
As Ida and Elner walked along, it was very quiet, not a soul around, just the sound of birds.
When Elner asked her where they were going, Ida said, “You’ll see soon enough.”
Elner looked up and saw two zebras, with red stripes that looked like candy canes and with silver tinsel manes and tails, and a herd of tiny little bright yellow hippopotamuses no bigger than twelve inches high, pass right in front of them.
“That’s different,” Elner said. “You don’t see that every day.”
“You do here,” said Ida.
After they had walked a little while longer, Elner asked, “Are we there yet?”
Ida ignored her.
“How much farther do we have to go?”
“Just hold your horses, Elner, we’ll get there when we get there.”
“All right. I just wondered…that’s all.”
They continued on for a few more minutes,