George Nemeth · A eulogy for Barb Craver by Steve Cadwell

July 8th, 2009

A lovely piece to help remember Doug’s Mom:

The noise was loud — enough so to be heard by anyone nearby. Conversation abruptly stopped as we searched with our eyes to determine the source of the thud, to see what had happened, not immediately noticing the person laying horizontally beneath our gaze, her eyes looking up, staring calmly at the ceiling. After a moment, she let out a muffled, “Oh,” which gave away her location. Several family members rushed to her side to see what had happened, as blood began to soak and then puddle in the carpet around The Gatekeeper’s head. It looked serious.

Most impressive in action was Barb. Apparently, she had prepared to deal with this type of traumatic event because she took charge immediately, clearing people from around The Gatekeeper and kneeling next to her, looking down intently to determine what level of trauma may have been at hand and how to deal with it. I had never seen Barb move so quickly or act so decisively. Perhaps she had special emergency medical training, necessary for her work as a drug and alcohol counselor. Like everyone else, I stood in awe, awaiting orders from the self-appointed Commander, perhaps to call 9-1-1, get ice, boil water, tear sheets. Within seconds, Barb had seen enough. Bolting upright, she searched the crowd, settling on the first person in her line of sight. “Joanne!” she said excitedly. “We were just talking about this… do you think that Resolve carpet cleaning spray will work to get this blood out of the carpeting?”

An instant later when she realized how absurd her temporarily misplaced priorities appeared to be, she laughed at herself…

via Mill Creek Almanac: Barb Craver’s Resolve — In Memoriam.

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