This is the eulogy I gave after Bob gave his (which I won't be sharing here). I didn't use notes, but this is pretty close to what I said.

Bob spoke about the positive influence his mother had on his life. I am going to tell you about some of the gifts Millie gave me, both simple and profound.

As some of you know, we have a weekend house that is a log home. So many of the gifts from Millie in recent years have had a rustic log cabin theme. There are the lovely alpine chimes, the beautiful birch candle sticks that we’ve never had the heart to burn, and who could forget the plastic, three foot tall black bear who holds a roll of toilet paper between his front paws?

I’m not going to give you a litany of all the gifts she gave to me for Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries over the years, for that you would have to sit here until next year. But I do want to share with you what was going through my mind as I was getting ready to come down here for the service.

I don’t have a job that requires me to get dressed up very often. My usual garb are jeans and a casual shirt. So I don’t have a half dozen suits fresh from the dry cleaner. Those of you who know me well are aware that I don’t care much about whether my shirt is wrinkled, or if my socks match my pants. But when I took this suit out of the closet, where it had been hanging for three years, I noticed that the slacks were badly wrinkled. So I went to the linen closet, and there it was. The Rowenda iron that Millie gave me several years ago. It’s German, I think, and a very fine iron. It worked like a charm.

I realized I needed to wear my long black coat. It’s too formal for me to wear very often, and besides, this winter hasn’t been cold enough anyway. When I located it in the closet, I saw that it was missing a button – of course. I went to the cabinet to retrieve my sewing kit. An antique basket full of needles and thread that had belonged to Oma. Millie gave it to me after Oma died.

As I was getting dressed this morning, I needed to select jewelry. I picked out earrings. It wasn’t a hard decision. They are my favorite pair and I wear them almost every day. You guessed it, they were another gift from Millie.

The last gift I am going to share with you is the most important. Millie had a terrific sense of humor. She loved to laugh. She was always telling jokes and funny stories. She often forwarded humorous emails. She passed that quality on to both of her sons. Bob makes me laugh everyday, at happy times and during difficult ones. Thank you Millie for my life partner Bob, and for one of his best qualities, a wonderful wit.