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March 14, 2007
Sigh
My dear Mother-In-Law, Ann Donovan, passed away Tuesday morning. John has written a wonderful elegy for her, and everyone should go read it.
Many of my friends complain about their mothers-in-law. They complain that they are butt-in-skies and critical and unbearable. This was not the case with Ann Donovan. Ann was always gracious. In fact, she told me that she endeavored to be a good Mother-in-law because she had a difficult time getting along with her mother-in-law.
When I first met Ann, John was helping me to move my portion of my Dad's furniture to Kansas. My dad had just died, and John was a friend, and was kind enough to drive the U-Haul truck while I drove the car from St. Louis to Olathe, Kansas. We stopped in Columbia, Missouri to take a break from the extremely long day that started with loading the U-Haul at about 6 am. John had recently been given a family heirloom and since he was being so helpful, I told him that we could haul that to his house in Leavenworth. The family heirloom was a huge, huge Winchester Bullet Board.
John went into his house to get the bullet board and load it in the U-Haul. His mom, Ann, came out and wandered down to my car, where Andy and I sat. She insisted that we come in and have dinner and stay the night. And she welcomed us into her family ever after.
How wonderful is that?
Eventually, John and I became a "thang" and we started making regular visits to Columbia for holidays, etc. Ann was always extremely kind to me and to Andy. And she loved Andy like her own grandchild.
Ann had a wondrous sense of humor. She delighted in the silly gifts we brought her. Like this one and this one.
I have many good memories of time spent with John's mom. So many memories that I guess someday I should sit down and write about the best ones.
Posted by Beth at March 14, 2007 6:01 PM
Comments
I am so very sorry for your family's loss. :-(
Posted by: Richmond at March 16, 2007 4:15 PM
Everything you've told me about Ann makes me wish I'd had the chance to meet her. I know from our talks what a wonderful relationship the two of you had, and I wish there was a way for me to comfort you in this sad time.
Posted by: Venomous Kate at March 17, 2007 12:04 AM
My condolances to you and John. It sounds like his Mom was quite a lady. I was bothered because I could not find the obit either here or here.
This evening I find that it was posted last night: Ann Donovan, 1931-2007, much too late for those of us out-of-town to send anything.
I note that the obit can also be found at Heartland and specifies "In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to the Salvation Army.".
We honor Ann's Promotion to Glory.
I assume we could also make contributions to Valour-IT.
Posted by: The Thomas at March 17, 2007 9:38 PM
I'm so sorry for your loss Beth. She sounds like a wonderful person. She certainly left a beautiful legacy.
Posted by: beth at March 18, 2007 4:46 PM
Sorry for the delay, Thomas. The late obit was completely my fault.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at March 18, 2007 7:24 PM