Mimi and Fergie
Mimi’s Voice
Mimi loves ice cream!
He almost got caught!
Ryan annoying mimi
Ryan annoying mimi
Jericka’s Funeral Speech
Today, we gather to honor and celebrate the life of Patricia, better known to myself and my cousins as Mimi, who touched the hearts of everyone she encountered with her kindness, humor, and unwavering dedication to her loved ones. For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Jericka and I’m one of Patricia’s granddaughters, and this is Georgi, who is up here with me for support. I’m sure all of you that knew my grandmother know that she was extremely brave, strong-minded, loved by many, classy, ALWAYS had to have her hair done, and always had something wise to say about any situation. When we went shopping for my birthday’s like we did every year, she always asked, “do you like it or do you love it?” And if I didn’t “love it” then I didn’t get it, which has stuck with me well into adulthood. When I had my first real boyfriend that she couldn’t stand, she told me “well he’s very nice, but nice doesn’t pay the bills.”, which is another piece of advice I took to heart. When the cousins and I would fight, Mimi would pop in and say, “I know you’re not being ugly to each other! Your family, and you’re supposed to love each other”, which usually led to apologies and a reconciliation. and years later, I think back and say “man… Some things, Mimi just KNEW”. She also taught all of us very valuable lessons with family: number one was to always have each other’s backs… even against each other… like the time a few neighborhood kids were picking on Georgi and Hunter and I chased them down on their bikes and knocked them off their bikes, or when Hunter was going a little too hard on Georgi and I smacked him in the head with a pink video camera with flowers on it. She also taught us to always tell the truth, like the time I hit my sister-in-law’s car at Starbucks and Grant ran to tell everyone, so I tackled him in Mimi’s kitchen floor and held his mouth shut till he promised he wouldn’t tell… then he blurted it out anyway when I was done…. And her biggest lesson for us was to always be safe, like how she’d absolutely BARRICADE her bedroom door shut with Georgi and I inside her bedroom when we stayed with her for the week for camp, or how she kept an ENORMOUS shotgun under her bed… but that’s a different story…. When all of us were younger, we’d go to Mimi’s house every Christmas Eve and open gifts. The boys would open theirs, and Georgi and I would open ours. Mimi would always forget who liked what when it came to animal prints, so Georgi and I usually ended up switching gifts at the end of the night before we left. We never told Mimi that, we just took care of it ourselves. Eventually when we got older, and we were almost old enough to drive, key word ALMOST, we’d all drive her golf cart through her grass until she’d get mad and yell at us, then we’d go down to the beach and come back when we were exhausted and sunburnt, and we all couldn’t have been happier because we were with Mimi. I have a lot of fond memories with Mimi, and I know all of the others do too, and they’re probably similar to mine because that’s JUST how she was. She loved all of us so much, and every time that we all spent together was fun. Whether it was dancing through the living room singing songs from the lion king, watching “The Wizard of Oz” or “Shrek” for the millionth time because she had a VERY select few VHS tapes for us to choose from, by very I mean like THREE VHS tapes, making up dances to present to her, spending long drawn out days on the beach, spending the week with her during the summer when we went to camp, or stopping at Jimmy’s convenience store to get ice cream before heading out to the beach, we ALWAYS had fun JUST because we were with Mimi. Mimi was always so proud of all of us. Every phone call I was updated with Hunter, Georgi, and Grant’s new endeavors, and how proud she was of them. When Georgi and Aunt Brenna came to Lubbock a few months ago, I was happy to know it was the other way around when she spoke to them about me. In a way, I feel like that was her way of keeping us all connected and up to date with each other, even though we were far. Mimi was smart like that. In her days after the fall, she was able to meet my newborn son, Ryatt. She was so proud of him, and she told every one who would listen at the hospital about him. For months, he was all she could talk about. She would make my husband mad by saying, “oh wow! I think he looks like me!” During that visit, I saw a light from Mimi that I hadn’t seen in a long time. She was full of life, love, and was so enamored with him, which reminded me of how she was when I was younger, and I’m so grateful that was one of my last memories of her. And that I was offered the opportunity to see that version of her one more time. In her final days, in very much so fierce Patricia fashion, she held on long enough for everyone who TRULY loved her to say goodbye. She heard from her grandchildren, friends, her brother Michael, her cousins Charlotte and Linda, her nephew, Cody, and just about everyone else who loved her. When she passed, it was peaceful, she wasn’t in pain, she had her son, daughter-in-law, and daughter by her side so she wasn’t lonely, and she knew how loved she was. For those of us who did call and say goodbye, let us be grateful that we had the time to, and allow us yet another chance to have one final moment with her. For all of us in general, let us remember the love, laughter, and precious moments we shared with her. May Mimi’s memory live on in our hearts forever, and may we find solace in knowing that she is now at peace with Daddy Jim… and John Wayne, her second true love, as all of us know. I’m sure she’s up there beaming down on all of us, switching back and forth between partners, and dancing to Hakuna Matata on heaven’s floor, just like she used to do with Georgi and I. God has welcomed her with open arms, and for that we should all be grateful. Thank you.
