There was a lovely Memorial Service for Maryal on April 14 at the US Naval Academy, where she taught the Midshipmen for 30 years.
A few days before the service, our
Pat Westerdale printed the posts from this Tribute/Remembrance page - along with the photos posted here and had them beautifully bound to give to
Maryal's daughter, Susan, following the service. What a fantastic job you did, Pat!
The service was held at the large, impressive chapel at the Naval Academy. It was filled with hundreds of Easter lilies. No one else had sent flowers for the occasion because of this. I brought a single rose to give to Susan from SeniorLearn, along with the bound tributes. The Midshipmen arrived shortly before the service in uniform. Bruce thought it was early to be wearing them, but they were all wearing whites.
In the weeks before she died, Maryal had contacted the Academy with the music and the readings she had selected for the service. You should have seen the organ - and heard it! I'll include the three hymns played during the service because Maryal had selected them.
Processional - Immortal Invisible God Only Wise."
Interlude - "How Great Though Art."
Recessional - "Eternal Father, Strong to Save."
There were three readings during the service - from William Faulker's
Absalom, Absalom. (I was moved at this - Maryal had participated in a discussion of this novel with us in 1999.) - It begins:
"Maybe nothing ever happens once and is finished. Maybe happen is never once but like ripples maybe on water after the pebble sinks, the ripples moving on, spreading, the pool attached by a narrow umbilical water-cord to the next pool which the first pool feeds, has fed, did feed..."
The second was a reading from the Book of Job:
"I know that my Redeemer liveth...And though this body be destroyed, yet I shall see God."
And the third - William Faulkner again, from his address upon receiving the Nobel Prize:
"I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure..."
The first speaker who remembered Mary Alice Deems was the delightful
Jerilyn Watson who has been her friend since kindergarten. Susan had asked her to be "funny" in her comments. Jerilyn was so frightened to do this in the large intimidating chapel, but she needn't have worried.
Every memory was funny, yet sweet and gentle. All who knew Maryal as an adult was able to recognize the playful nature and sense of humor so many have noted in the posts in the Tribute pages. By the end of her comments, everyone was smiling at the antics of the sandbox set and their ringleader.
The next two speakers were co-workers and friends. The
Professor Emerita of History at the Naval Academy and author, Molly Tinsley, had commuted to work at the Naval Academy for years with Maryal. Both were swimmers too - in the same pool in Bethesda, MD - where our
PatH swims. She shared a number of anecdotes and memories of the years they spent together at the Academy, always with respect for her "mentor."
The third was a young
Professor Allyson Beach, who spoke of Maryal as a teacher. She described how Maryal showed such interest to every word her students wrote. She told us how Maryal would sit in a student desk along side the others in the class with her eyes closed so that she could give full attention to every word as each student read his or her paper- Doesn't that sound just like Maryal, the way she listened with respect and commented on every post in the discussions she was leading?
Susan repeated several times how happy she was that we had come. Her mother's friends at SenorLearn meant so much to her. She examined each photo that Pat had included in the Tribute book and said she intended to carefully read every comment when she got home.
We will leave this discussion open for those who have not yet learned of Maryal's passing. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and memories of our dear friend and long-time Discussion Leader.
