I lost my great Aunt Grey last month. She would have been 100 years old on her next birthday. Laughter is one of the greatest gifts she taught me.
In Memory of My Aunt Grey ….
Let me Die Laughing
We are all dying, our lives always moving toward completion.
We need to learn to leave with death, and to understand that death is not the worst of all events.
We need to fear not death, but life—
Empty lives, Loveless lives, Lives that do not build upon gifts that each of us has been given,
Lives that are living deaths, lives which never take the time to savor and appreciate,
Lives in which we never pause to breathe deeply.
What we need to fear is not death, but squandering the lives we have been miraculously given.
So let me die laughing, savoring one of life’s crazy moments.
Let me die holding the had of one I love, and
Recalling that I tried to love and was loved in return.
Let me die remembering that life has been good,
and I did what I could.
But today, just remind me that I am dying, so that I can live,
Savor and love with all my heart.
By Mark Morrison-Reed
Thank you Aunt Grey for always teaching me to laugh at myself, to find the humor in all things and to let those you love know they are loved.
Mrs. Emma Gray McKinney Williams Kirk, age 99, a resident of Venice, FL passed on July 21, 2017.
A memorial service will be held 4:00 p.m. Saturday July 29, 2017 at Venice United Church of Christ, 620 Shamrock Blvd., Venice, FL 34293.
Mrs. Emma Gray was born and raised in Hyde County daughter of the late John Ernel McKinney and the late Addie Lee Cox McKinney. She moved to Norfolk, VA and lived there until her retirement at which time she moved to Florida.
Survivors include two grandsons: Troy Dewayne Sears and John Archer Scott Sears and three sisters: Eloise McKinney Smith, Norma McKinney Hodges and Randi McKinney Slade. Mrs. Emma Gray was predeceased by two husbands: Ellis Williams and Boyce Kirk; a daughter: Elizabeth Ann Williams Wright; four sisters: Hilda McKinney Reed, Mavis McKinney Paul Allen, Margarette McKinney Smith and Doris McKinney Fox and two brothers: John Junious McKinney and Curtis Conway McKinney.