These two boys Percy and Brownie

 

These two boys Percy and Brownie




 A mutual favorite and just one of several quotes from the ancient but revered Doctor Fred Ross spoken at the funeral of Grace Sheehy's mother Cora Kenmir at Rose Hills cemetery in 1970. The Kenmir women seemed to have had the gene for longevity as Mrs. Kenmir made it to 92 but it was a somber occasion nevertheless. I can't remember all of the pall bearers but Jack and I were the young corners on the casket wearing the white gloves and sporting the boutonniere. We were to lay Cora down next to her Edward who had been waiting for fifteen years in the ground for his wife.  As we completed our transport to the gravesite and mourners were milling about a voice was heard saying "quiet everybody Dr. Ross wants to speak!" Then a very old but rather charistmatic gentleman cleared his throat and the crowd awaited his words. He began with Psalm 23, the Psalm or David that begins with "the lord is my sheperd, I shall not want" that was pronounced in a tremulous voice. He continued to the end "I will dwell in the house of the lord forever." and dead silence was cast across the graveyard. The good Doc then spoke off the cuff about the spiritual goodness of the husband of Cora, Edward who had served the lord himself as a member of the Salvation Army.  Ross described the earlier death of his friend as "he beat me there." During this impromptu eulogy he also pointed out two of the other pall-bearers who struggled with the casket. He described Percy Kenmir and Dwight Brownrigger, both septugenarians as "these two boys Percy and Brownie." Greg, Jack, Kevin and I thought the description of what we thought were old geezers as boys to be absolutely hilarious. Now that all of us have passed that 70 years mark the term boys does not seem so foolish but we can also sympthize with Percy and Brownie hauling a coffin up a hill in these burial grounds while wheezing through lungs that had smoked decades of unfiltered cigarettes,  Imitations of Doctor Fred Ross were repeated hundreds of times within the trio of disrespectul lads and probably will be used a few more times before we beat another one of us there. 




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