Mammoo
My grandmother, RV Pompee, passed away on April 18, 2008. Below are the readings/pictures/scriptures that Brian and I gave at her funeral on April 22, 2008.
Obituary
R.V. Drake Pompee passed into eternal peace on April 18th, 2008. R.V. was born in Tyler County, TX, on March 27, 1922. She was preceded in death by her husband Charles Pompee and her daughter Sandra Elskes Hampton. She is survived by daughter Eileen Hardin, husband Billy; son Dale Harris, wife Kay; grandchildren Chris Hampton, Mark Hampton, Scott Hampton, David Hampton, Brian Greenwalt, Jeffrey Greenwalt, and Kelly Greenwalt; and 10 great-grandchildren. R.V. will be greatly missed for her strong will and generous love for her family.
Scriptures
Ecclesiastes 3
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Revelation
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Brian’s Speech
RV was my grandmother, but we never called her Grandma or Granny… she was always Mammoo to us.
I consider myself a man of God. I try to live my life as Jesus would want me to, and as the church has taught me. And when preparing for this service, I asked myself “How did Christ live through her?” Well, Mammoo wasn’t what you would think of as a religious person, but she had qualities in the way she lived her life that I wanted to talk about today.
She loved her family. She didn’t tell us all the time with words… she told us in actions. She was a young mother who worked very hard to provide her children everything they needed… maybe not everything they wanted, but everything they needed. She provided. After her children were grown and started to raise their own families and pave their own ways in life, her pride grew. She looked on as her daughters became mothers… loving mothers. And her pride grew more.
She kept up with every single detail of all 7 grandkids throughout every phase of our lives. She could tell us what our siblings were up to before we had even learned of it ourselves. Her love was shown through acts and deeds. Care packages, notes in the mail with newspaper clippings, birthday cards (she always sent the perfect cards for every occasion).
When her son would come and visit, she always had a shirt waiting for him, his favorite type of soda in the ice box, and a freshly made dessert.
(show Recipe Book)
Everyone loved Mammoo’s chocolate meringue pie… except for my son Connor. So when he came, she fixed him up a plate of just chocolate pie. She knew our likes and dislikes, and she remembered. And that is how she showed her love to us.
She loved to people-watch. She would sit in her kitchen and watch the world go by. She had volumes of genealogy research that she had done on countless generations of our relatives. She discovered that she was part American Indian.
She was very wise, always had advice to give and past histories to share. She was determined, opinionated, and didn’t have trouble telling you what she thought. You couldn’t bring up the subject of health care without getting a good speech out of her.
(show PDR)
Since her husband Charlie passed nearly 20 years ago, she has done an amazing job of taking care of herself… she was very independent. She didn’t want to trouble anybody… even as she was preparing for surgery a couple of weeks ago, she didn’t want anyone to take the trouble of driving down to San Antonio to visit.
Of course she hated traffic, and always had these creative ways of telling you how to get somewhere while avoiding it. She could probably guide you from here to the airport just by driving through neighborhoods and store parking lots. That was Mammoo, our grandmother.
She had a rough last few weeks… we asked her to fight, and she fought, but it was simply her time. May we find comfort in these words from Revelation…
Kelly’s Speech
The Comfort and Sweetness of Peace - by Helen Steiner Rice
After the clouds, the sunshine,
after the winter, the spring,
after the shower, the rainbow,
for life is a changeable thing.After the night, the morning,
bidding all darkness cease,
after life’s cares and sorrows,
the comfort and sweetness of peace.
I am Kelly, Mammoo’s youngest grandchild and only granddaughter. When I think about how much I miss her already, I try to focus on how fortunate I was to know her for 30 whole years. 30 years full of wonderful memories. Let me start at the beginning…
Growing up, I always looked forward to Mammoo and Charlie coming to visit. That meant several things… Mammoo would beam when she saw us, and probably pull something out of her purse for us, a quarter, a piece of candy, we weren’t particular. And then Charlie would take us down to the local Sunny’s and let us pick out more candy.
When we would visit them in San Antonio when they lived on Weeping Willow, they would take us to Breckinridge Park, one of my fondest memories… dragging them up and down the steps at the Japanese Tea Gardens… riding the skyrails from one side of the park to the other, looking down below and laughing at my Dad as he got nervous when we went over the bumps.
Mammoo always had puzzles and card games for us at her house… she was the one who taught me how to play solitaire, and often I still prefer laying out the cards rather than playing on my computer.
She and Charlie had an active social life, so even if I was visiting, they would sometimes hire a sitter to put me to bed while they went out square-dancing. I wasn’t sure exactly what it entailed at the time, but I always loved admiring her different colored petticoats hanging around her closets.
I have many memories of her and Charlie being at our house in Houston on Christmas morning… I never understood why they looked so tired, but little did I know they were likely up half the night helping my folks put together our toys and dollhouses.
Mammoo loved that time of year, she always had a fondness for Perry Como… she used to tell Charlie that it wasn’t Christmas until she had heard ‘Ave Maria’.
I loved their house on Weeping Willow. They had this great backyard with a swingset for the grandkids and tons of bird feeders because Mammoo loved to watch the birds and squirrels from the kitchen… of course she would complain about the squirrels stealing the bird seed, but we all knew there was this 20-pound sack of bird seed in the garage that they scooped from everyday, so I don’t think there was a shortage.
I loved it when they would get the sandbox out of the shed for us to play in… and then later, Mammoo would fix us a sandwich or a bowl of soup and crackers. They were both wonderful grandparents.
Later, when Jeff and I were in college in San Marcos, we would come visit Mammoo down in San Antonio whenever we had a free weekend… Mammoo would usually cook a full meal for us. Now, a home cooked meal is a heavenly thought to any college kid who has been eating Ramen non-stop, but Mammoo’s meals were EXCEPTIONAL. She might prepare a ham, some green beans, and… here it comes: her scalloped potatoes. Jeff and I still drool just thinking about her scalloped potatoes. We would visit, watch some sports, complain about politics or the weather, and then Jeff and I would usually pass out on her living room floor. Food comas from Mammoo’s awesome cooking.
And when it was time to leave, she would fix us plates and to-go packages to take with us. Leftovers, dry food goods, anything we might need. And something else she always sent me home with… make-up sample kits. I swear Mammoo single-handedly provided at least 75% of the make-up I have ever owned. I still have pieces of them everywhere.
And if we couldn’t come visit regularly, she would send us care packages to college. Some treats, a letter, and maybe a beanie baby. There was usually a cut-out article of some sort, maybe related to an ailment we had suffered from recently, or perhaps an article about a person that we MIGHT have known 10 years ago. But she saw it and thought of us. I loved getting things in the mail from Mammoo.
<read letter>
She always got so tickled with her great-grandkids. She loved to watch them act like goofballs… probably remembering how much they are like all of us. I remember her coming to visit Jeff and Amber’s house in Bastrop, and Connor had been fed up with me because I couldn’t run around and play (still recovering from a broken leg). So when Mammoo came in, he said “Mammoo, come outside and play with me!”
She didn’t even bat an eye, she just said “Ok” and went outside with him. We didn’t see them for another 15 minutes at least, but I suppose they had a great time exploring together.
I know Connor has fond memories of hanging out with Mammoo. He always loved playing with her beanie babies… and also using her garden tools to rake the yard. As a toddler he was so fascinated with her vacuum cleaner that she got him a miniature real-working vacuum for Christmas that year.
Like Brian said… she remembered. Her mind was sharp. She knew what we liked and tried to accommodate whenever she could. That is how she showed her love for all of us. And I know she is smiling down upon us today with all of these memories. She isn’t alone though, she has the love of her life… Charlie. She has her eldest daughter, Sandy. She has her sisters and her brothers. She is surrounded by loved ones up in heaven, just as she was surrounded by loved ones down here.
Let us remember Mammoo, the devoted mother, the dedicated grandmother and great-grandmother, and truly beautiful & remarkable woman that she was.
After her surgery, when her recovery looked bleak, Bubba (Dale) went to her bedside and said “Mom, do you want us to let you go?” And her response was… “One More Day”. This gave me chills when he told me because one of my favorite books happens to be called “For One More Day” and is about getting to spend one more day with a loved one who has passed on. So I flipped through my copy and was drawn to this passage, which I believe is so fitting to her and her life… and I read this at her bedside about a week ago:
“I believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you’ll never know what they endured… but there’s a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begins.” –Mitch Albom ‘For One More Day’
I give thanks to everyday I had with her and I am so proud to have had her as my grandmother… my Mammoo. And knowing her skill for genealogy and her love for her family, I thought this was a fitting quote to leave you with before we view a picture show of her life.
~Albert Einstein~
Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.
Slideshow - http://www.kellygreenwalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/Mammoo_Tribute.pps
Sparky’s Email
RV was technically my Mother’s sister, and when their Mother died, RV came to live with us and was raised with my brother Frank and I as our sister. Therefore, all of my childhood and adult memories of RV are as a loved and loving sister. Through the years even though we lived in different cities and sometimes different countries, we always stayed in touch and visited as often as was possible.
RV was always generous to me and my children, and always enjoyed her family and mine. She was a very independent person, and never asked for help from others. I always felt that she was a wonderful Mother and Grandmother, and I know that she worked hard to provide for her family. I remember that in her later years, she and Charlie really enjoyed square dancing.
Something amusing that I remember, and I think you guys would enjoy knowing, is that she eloped at the age of 19, and went to Galveston for a three or four day honeymoon.
When she and her new husband returned home, she was sunburned badly, to the point of being bright red – she couldn’t wear anything but her bathing suit for a week or so. I remember that my Mother (Ruby) was very upset, and I’m not sure whether she was more upset over the elopement or the sunburn!! I always wondered what kind of a honeymoon they had, but never had the nerve to ask!!
RV will be missed by me and my family.
Sparky
