Lillian Mason
January 2014
One of my memories of Aunt Lill involves wallpaper. She and I were crammed into a tiny laundry closet, with a slanted ceiling on Shattuck St. There wasn’t even enough room for the two of us to stand side by side. But that was no problem as far as Lill was concerned. I just crawled up onto the washing machine, as directed and we got the job done.
Lill was always about creating a prefect home; whether it involved changing wallpaper, moving furniture around or switching one bedroom into another room altogether. She was even known to change apartments if things weren’t exactly right.
But she didn’t do all of this redecorating just for herself and her children. Lill’s home was available to her whole family. Anyone could come over and sit on the porch and talk, or just keep her company, or enjoy a marathon, weekend-long, Yahtze tournament (like her sister Charlotte did). And there were the times when one of her brothers needed a place to stay for a few days, or months, or even a year. Long before there were homeless shelters, there was Lill’s house and Joe’s house.
Lill was also the fourth child of twelve, fourteen if you count two babies who lived a few days. She lived the longest and was the last of them. So now it is our turn to welcome each other into our homes. Now it is up to us to watch out for our sisters, brothers and cousins. And how do we do that without her, without all of them?
I think I know the answer. Somewhere in the early years of Lill and Joe’s life together, when one of her brothers moved into her house for a time, Jesus, our brother quietly slipped in and made his home with Lill and Joe and the rest. .. And if this is true, then we too can invite Jesus into our homes. We can just sit with him for a while, the same way that we could sit with Lill. And we can depend on Jesus to give us the strength to take care of each other. And finally, we can be bold enough to ask Jesus, plus all these Fenners who have gone before us, to help us find our way home to heaven, home to a God who loves us, who laughs and cries with us.
We are all on the same journey home to the God, like Lill. And one last gift that she had will keep us on the road, her sense of humor. Even on her last day with us, she appreciated a good laugh. When Gail was trying to replace the oxygen piece that kept falling out of Lill’s nose, Gail started swearing. And Lill’s response was to laugh. So let’s keep all of these things about Lill in mind as we go forward and watch out for each other.
And here’s one final, important question, “Who’s going to bring the potato salad?”