Excerpt: Ava's Sunflower // Café Ava

[warning no editing]

Except from Ava's Sunflower:
“We’re here, all of us here, to honor the lives of my mother Lynn Hudson, my stepfather Bob Hudson, and my sister Elizabeth Thomas. I know I speak for my niece, Liz’s daughter, when I say that we are thankful for everyone who came today, and for those who came to share their stories yesterday.

“When you’re a child, you have such a limited focus, such a limited viewpoint on life. You don’t see both sides, just yours. You don’t see how an event effected the world, just how it effected you. Like all families, ours had it shares of troubles. It’s so easy to focus on the troubles instead of the triumphs, isn’t it? I, too, was guilty of that before this past weekend.

“I still had a good relationship with my family, don’t get me wrong. But when I thought of them certain events, actions, words, would pop in to my mind first without any prompting, and they weren’t always the most positive.

“But yesterday, but Friday changed all of that. Nothing ever prepares you for a phone call telling you that your entire family, except one precious little angel, is dead. Nothing ever prepares you for being the oldest member of your family at the ripe old age of twenty-six. Nothing ever prepares you for hearing so many stories about your family, you wonder if you even really knew them at all, or if you fell into that limited viewpoint.

“My step father Bob was a hero. Yes, a hero in the community - I heard stories from people who owe their lives to him. But I realized he was a hero in the house as well. When I moved out to go to college, I was worried what would happen to Mom. But after he came in, I didn’t need to worry. He was a hero in the home as well.

“My sister was a caregiver. Yes, a caregiver in the community - I heard stories from people who will always fondly remember the extra effort she put into making the community a better place, from story times to personal relationships. But now I look at Ava and think what a good job she’s done. She was a caregiver in the home as well.

“My mother was a teacher. Yes, a teacher in the community - I heard from people who went to college because of my mother, who got a high school diploma when everyone but her had given up on them. But I’m just now realizing how much she’s taught to me over the years, both from the good times and the bad. She was a teacher in the home as well.

“Every single one us in this room was touched in some way by either Bob, Lynn, or Liz. I ask you to remember the stories. Remember how they touched you, what they meant to you, and let their stories, their legacies, live on in you.