Anne Elizabeth Dodd

I'm really not ready to talk about any of this, but many of my friends suggested that I post the eulogy I wrote and delivered for mom. I know that I switch from past to present tense a lot, but that was my state of mind at the time I wrote it and I would like to keep the words in their original content. 

What do you say about a life well lived?

There is so much I would like to say and tell you about our mother, but I simply don’t trust my emotions enough to speak strictly off the cuff…thus the notes. When daddy asked if I would say a few words about mom, I knew that this is something mom would have wanted (rather expected) me to do regardless of how hard this is going to be. I can hear her say, “Pull yourself together Anne-Michelle. You’re stronger than this.”

So here goes nothin’ mama…

If I were only allowed to use a few words to described our mother and her legacy I would say strength, beauty, and love.

Beth Dodd is the strongest woman I know. She has NEVER backed down from a fight. Big or small, she was going to fight and win. In fact, picking out clothes to wear when we were younger proved to be only slightly less tenuous than the Middle East peace talks and usually ended with mama being the mature one and telling us that we had successfully achieved a look that would make people in New Orleans say, “Well, that seems a little excessive.” And then we’d change.

Many of you all witnessed her strength this past year when she faced the fight of her life, breast cancer. She fought it the only way she knew how; with faith, dignity, grace, humor, and stoic determination.

When she and daddy came to Birmingham to tell Chrissy and me the news, I started to cry and she quickly said, “No tears. We WILL NOT cry over this.” People say that beauty rises from the ashes and watching her go through this trial was poetry in motion. Mom became closer to family (if that’s possible), her friends and God during this time.

The past few days have been so hard, but mama, you would have been so proud. Don’t get me wrong. We have cried…A LOT, but then we pulled ourselves together and did what you taught us to do. I was the fighter, Chrissy was the planner and Daddy was the lover. And the boys mom…your son’s in law have been amazing.  I know you’re pleased.

Over the past few days, your home has been filled with family, laughter and tears. It was the kind of gathering that always seems to happen at your house. I know you haven’t been in the center of it all, but mama you have been the center of it all. Last night we sat on the floor and went through all the old pictures. I haven’t belly laughed like that in a while, which is good. Sometimes you just need to laugh. As Truvy says in Steel Magnolias, “Laughter through tears is one of my favorite emotions.”

Our mom is an amazing creature. If Chrissy and I got half of her beauty, her sense of style and class, then we are far better than most. She has always known how to stay young. I started borrowing her clothes when I was in high school. I bet not many moms have a wardrobe that their teenage daughter would like to wear, but our mother has always had style.

If Chrissy and I would show up after driving from Birmingham to Eunice with too little make up on or no lipstick, she’d say, “Oh it makes me so sad that you don’t wear makeup anymore.” She always wanted us to look our best, even for eight hour car trips through South Louisiana.

When mom found out that she had breast cancer two things happened, she started a journal and she got an upgrade in technology. (My sister and I got her a hot pink i-pod with pre-loaded songs picked out by her family and friends). I sat down to read her journal last night and thought the following entries showed her beautiful personality:

• Aug 14^th – Sisters come over to do hair and go out to eat. They brought me home and stayed to visit. Nightgown, bed and sisters; Great Day!
• Aug 18^th – Got my Ipod and song selections. What a wonderful gift. The best ever. I cry when I see the song selection of “Save the Last Dance” from Chris and then laugh when I see his selection of “Why don’t we get drunk and screw.”
• August 25^th – Haircut day! Chris came with me for support. I now have very short, extremely curly hair!
• Aug 31^st – Went to a wedding shower today. Everyone loved my hair. They said it made me look younger.
• September 7^th – First chemo session. Ipod selection;  “Hit me with your best shot”
• Sept 9^th – Stopped at Miles Perrett cancer services. Amazing organization, very helpful gave us lots of good information and a cute wig.
• Sept 17^th Went to a wedding in Rayne – I looked good and hair still nice. Thank goodness I had my eyebrows done. They look amazing.
• Sept 28^th – Ipod choice “New Attitude” 2^nd Chemo Session. Being bald isn’t so bad – especially if you have cute scarves
• Oct. 19^th Ipod choice “I will survive” 3^rd chemo session. Pink is powerful
• Nov 11^th Good day, last chemo session. Ipod selection, “I can see clearly now.”
• Dec 22^nd. Leave for Birmingham and get wonderful news – A grand baby! Yay!

One of mama’s last journal entries was, “Jesus may be my strength and salvation, but Chris is my rock.” This comes to the last legacy of mom’s that I’d like to talk about: Love.

Mama always knows how to make you feel like you’re the most important person in the world when you’re with her. She listens to everything you say and even when we were little, never made us feel like our thoughts didn’t matter.

Mom has always surrounded herself with family and friends who loved her dearly. She and daddy have the most amazing community. She has friends that have gone out of their way to help our family in any way they can because she’s spent years doing the same thing for them.

But mom’s greatest gift to Chrissy and me has been her love story with our dad. It has been an honor to watch it up close. They are from completely different backgrounds, they are completely opposite, and they are completely in love.

Mom and dad met at USL when he came to the dorms to pick up another girl for a date. While he was waiting in the lobby for her to come down, he saw mama and knew she was the woman he was going to marry. Daddy went up and talked to her for awhile and then asked her to go to church with him the next morning. When Chrissy and I asked how he knew she was Catholic, daddy said, “I didn’t care what religion she was, I was going to take her to whatever church she wanted to go to!”

A few months later, mom wrote home to tell her family that she met a boy and was going steady and that he had a red mustang. Apparently nobody in Innis knew what she was talking about. Some thought that maybe she meant that daddy had a red mustache and others thought that maybe he had a horse. No. The year was 1964 and it was the first year the mustang came out.

The Bible says to love your spouse like Christ loved the church. Mom and dad lived out the gospel through their marriage. This picture right here was taken at my sister’s wedding. Daddy came in to take the bride, Chrissy, to the wedding. But as you can see from mama’s face, the first person he made eye contact with when he walked in the room was his bride and she saw her groom.

Daddy, Chrissy, James and Dan; it’s time to take her torch and run. Mom has already heard, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” This isn’t our eternal home. We just have to be faithful on earth a little longer. Jesus is coming for us and we have to be ready to meet mama in paradise.

I do not understand God’s timing. I know that none of us are guaranteed another day. Life is fragile and it’s our job to do what God has for us to do while we’re here. I don’t know why some people get 98 years, some 66 years, and some 2 months. All I know is that mom lived life to the fullest, she always made time for the people she loved, she followed God faithfully, she loved her husband and children completely and she was strong, beautiful and loving until the end.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.” 2 Tim 4:7-8