My earliest memory of Aunt Mattie could be a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The year was 1958 and I was eight years old. I remember sitting next to Aunt Mattie on the front pew of a little country church named St. Peter Missionary Baptist in Cedar Lake, Alabama at my father Lethel’s funeral. I sat with my face hid behind Aunt Mattie’s right shoulder because I didn’t want to see my father in the casket which was only about three feet away.

I kept my face hid behind her shoulder during the entire funeral service. I was so afraid that Aunt Mattie would tell me to sit up straight and stop crying so I wouldn’t wet her black two piece suit but she never said a word.  She just sat very solemn, looking straight ahead, letting me hide my face behind her shoulder for comfort. She was there when I needed a soft place to fall in a time of pain and sadness.

It seems strange, but Aunt Mattie is the only person I can remember at my father’s funeral. It’s hard for me to express the relief I felt having her to lean on. I can still see that little girl hiding her face behind Aunt Mattie’s right shoulder and feeling very safe and secure. The scene will be etched in my “memory” and my “heart” forever and ever, which is still very comforting.

-Edwina Rather-Beason
View Aunt Mattie’s obituary here and her Kinship Report here.