Ma's Eulogy (Allison)

Thank you all for coming here today to honor and remember my mother, Joyce
Moran. I want to share with you some of my favorite memories of my mother.
I probably remember the least of our childhood even though I am the oldest. I
blame it on a mild concussion I received in high school while others disagree.
Living in Tennessee the earliest memory I have of Ma is waiting for her to come
home from work from the Tennessee School for the Blind where she began
working when I started kindergarten. As John, Linda and I got older, Ma was the
one to transport us to and from baseball, softball and basketball practices, and
dance classes. She was always in the bleachers or stands cheering us on, never
missing a game or recital. Even though she worked full time, we were always her
first priority.
Ma could never deny us anything we wanted. We lived on a country road where
stray cats were often dropped off. We would bring them home and ask to keep
them. She would always let us and we ended up with 28 cats at one point.
Christmas was very special for us. We would always have a live tree while our
friends had an artificial one. Ma would always buy us the best presents and
seemed to know just what to get. Ma missed the white Christmases she used to
have as a child growing up in Maine. She would tell us stories of blizzards and
high banks of snow that we couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Ma’s favorite time of the year had to be summer. Since Ma was a teacher, we all
got summers off and as soon as June hit, we were on our way to Maine. We
stayed in a cottage on Lermond Pond and Ma really came to life as she fished,
swam, played cards and visited with her mother, Aunt Edith, and all the other
friends and relatives she saw only once a year. Ma taught me how to swim when I
was little and I think of her every time I am in the water. Every evening she and
my dad would go out fishing and their return was announced by the rhythmic
sound of Ma rowing the boat to shore.
My family moved to Maine the summer after I graduated from high school. Ma
was torn between wanting to live in Maine and the guilt of leaving me behind. Her
guilt resulted in many, many care packages and letters while I attended college in
Tennessee. When I moved to Maine to join my family, I was happiest about living
with Ma again. When you are separated even for a little while from your parent,
you feel it deep inside.
As I married and started a family, Ma was there for me in every way possible. She
supported me and shared in my happiness. When my daughter Sarah was
diagnosed with cancer as a baby, Ma and held my hand and cried with me and
gave Mark and I the support and love we needed so desperately to get through the
situation. Sarah is now a happy, healthy freshman in college.
Ma soon became known as Mema to my girls Sarah and Leah. My girls would
spend weekends at Mema’s and Grampa’s and get spoiled rotten. Mema would
always make her special Frenchy toast for them and watch every Disney movie
ever made. She loved my girls more than you can imagine. Mema was like a
second mother to them and her house was a haven. As my girls got older, Ma was
there for every game, concert, open house or other school event they were
involved in to support them just as she did her own children. Ma even came to
games and concerts after she was in a wheelchair. This past June she attended my
daughter Sarah’s graduation from high school with the help and transportation
provided by staff at the Knox Center. We were thrilled to have her at the
graduation and she was thrilled to be able to come.
Ma began working at the Department of Human Services in the Adult Protective
section in 1984. Her clients were very important to her and she treated them all
with respect and kindness they were more than a name on a piece of paper. Many
people have told me that she was the type of social worker that exists less and less
these days. I learned by example from Ma and I feel that I have the same
compassion for students that she did for her clients. I had the privilege to give a
speech at Ma’s retirement party in 2003 honoring her years of supporting our
family.
Ma’s decline in health was hard on all of us. She ended up in a nursing home in
April of 2006. We were blessed to have her at the Knox Center for Long Term
Care on the skilled nursing floor for 2 ½ years. The folks there gave my mother
and my father (who spent almost as much time there as Ma did) so much love and
care that it made having her away from home a little easier. The staff at Knox
became Ma’s family.
Ma’s passing will affect a lot of people for a long time. She was a loving, caring
person who always put others above herself. She loved her children and her
grandchildren unconditionally. I will always remember her smile and her laugh. I
will think of her every time I play rummy or 83. I will think of her as I swim
during the summer. I will think of her as I take pictures of my children. I will
think of her as I drive up Mays Hill or sit by the water at Lermond Pond. Ma will
be with me for the rest of my life and I will always love her.