Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 11-13, 2004

    Too much had, and was still happening, and this memoir was composed too long after the events, for anyone's memory to encompass it all. Bucky made some notes at the time, and those will have to suffice. When he was writing this, he sent the initial draft to his siblings, and to Kinley. Everyone said, "I can't remember." If anyone reading this has any memories they can add, please contact Bucky.
    Here are the few notes taken at the time.

Kinley not on time. Met her on the street in front of Bellview.
    (There was some confusion about Kinley's plane flight: Loie and Bucky didn't know when she was coming. They were unable to reach her on the phone. As it turned out, when they were driving to Bellview to do more work cleaning up, Kinley arrived at the driveway at exactly the same time they did, having decided to just rent a car.
    Kinley spent Thursday and Friday cleaning, polishing silver and organizing Yo's papers and things that had come back to Bellview from Carroll Lutheran Village. Thursday night was blustery. Kinley was sleeping in the upstairs front bedroom. She had opened the windows a bit for fresh air, and the wind was making the curtains flap. Soon the dreamcatcher on the wall was flapping, then everything in the room was rustling and flapping. Kinley sat up in bed and said, "Just come in, Yo." Then she got out of bed, and opened the front window wide for a little while, sitting thinking of Yo.)

Discussion: any activity after funeral? Kinley and Amy decided on Friday.

Friday Amy arrived. Sarah and kids arrived. Amy & Siggy in green room. Sarah and Kent in big bed. Kids around.

Fire worship. Burning flowers. Fireworks. Distributing trugs.
    (As the day grew dark on Friday evening, Amy thought there should be Fire Worship in Yo's honor in the Fire Circle. This was a small ring of gathered stones in the back yard that Yo had made, for little campfires, where she had what she called "Fire Worship." Really the worship was just a campfire. Bucky can't now remember which came first, but there was a deck style platform built by the Fire Circle. Crab feasts and other parties were had on the deck, and often concluded with Fire Worship.
    The first few times Fire Worship was held, people were apprehensive because outdoor fires were by then illegal in Glyndon. Yo said she had been burning leaves, and trash in the burning barrel, a very long time in Glyndon, and wasn't going to let anyone stop her now. As it turned out, no one ever complained, and Fire Worship was a regular event at parties for years.
    Everyone agreed it would be unpleasant to put all the lovely flowers in the trash. Instead, the flowers were burned on the campfire, and was indeed much like a worship ceremony. Someone, perhaps Bucky or Sarah, suggested using Yo's trugs to carry the flowers out to the fire. Many people had never used trugs, and admired the flat woven baskets. Bucky told everyone to take one home with them, in Yo's memory.
    It was some time later, probably when Bellview was being emptied, that Bucky realized his baby picture album was missing. Both he and Sarah remembered looking at it during the reception. How it got lost remains a mystery to this day.)

All Saints
    (On Saturday, there was a memorial service at All Saints Episcopal Church in Reisterstown, the church to which the Edgetts belonged while growing up. All of Yo's friends and many of Bucky's and his siblings' friends attended.
    Ebba von Saleski hired a car to drive her and Aunt Elizabeth Prior to the service. Bucky spoke to them in the parking lot. Aunt Elizabeth had to go home, she was tired. That was the last time Bucky spoke to her in person before she died.
    After the service, many people went to Bellview for a reception.)

Siggy's wonderful words
    (Sometime during the few days of her visit, Amy told Bucky, "After you called me, I was in the house somewhere, I was crying, and Siggy asked me, 'You had a sad phone call, didn't you? Did Oma Yo die?' I have no idea how he knew that, probably from listening to me on the phone, but still. Then when I told him, yes, Siggy, Oma Yo is dead, he said, 'I could see it coming. She was old. It was her time to die.' That's exactly what he said. I don't know where he gets this stuff."
    Later Amy told Bucky, "Siggy asked me the craziest thing. He said, 'Now that Oma Yo is dead, can I call her Audrey?' What was that all about?"

    Eventually, of course, Bellview was sold to the Smiths, a very nice couple who were living in one of the newer houses in Glyndon. They have done some pretty, and needed, renovations to Bellview. Bucky stopped by while on an errand early on, and Mrs. smith invited him in to see the work in progress. She told him that she had found a picture of Audrey behind one of the radiators, and was asking it --asking Audrey-- to give her advice on what work needed to be done and how it should look. Bucky showed Mrs. smith his signature hiddden on the side of a brick under the mantel, from when he had painted the interior of Bellview for Yo. That Christmas, the Smiths had a tree with lights in the pavilion, just as Yo used to have.
    It was two years after Yo's death that Bucky found a roll of camera film he thought was lost forever. When he found it, tucked away in some drawer, he didn't know what the pictures were. when developed and printed, they turne out to be ones he had taken at Bellview after Yo's death. So now the Lovebunnies have Monkey Boy on the wall in their kitchen, just as he was at Bellview.

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