A Celebration of the Life of the Lovely Libby Dean

On 16 April 2011, most of the family and many close friends of Libby Dean gathered on a terrifically stormy evening--crucially during the cocktail hour--at the Brandywine River Museum to celebrate her life, which was terribly sadly lost suddenly the week before on 7 April. Although she was a fair age, it was a shock to all of us, as we truly believed she would carry on past 100, particularly as she was larger than life.

I had hoped that I would be visiting her a few months later as consolation for my being made redundant from my job, so it was particularly devastating to be travelling to Chadds Ford without her there. A benefit of being jobless is that I had time to pull together a transcript of what was said, which I always wanted to do as so many people contributed such amazing, warm, lovely and certainly fitting tributes. However, until today (this was posted on Grandmommy's birthday), I could not face revisiting that evening, warm though it was, and hitting my grief head-on. On this first year when I cannot ring her on her birthday for a happy chat, perhaps it's been a bit cathartic. There are certainly some touching memories here. I've set out the full account in case anyone else is interested, in the order in which people spoke. (You can leave comments if you feel so inclined, and please forgive any mispelled names; please let me know of any significant errors).

It was a lovely atmosphere, a room at the Museum filled with caring people, and the Museum kindly let us display several of Grandmommy's wonderful watercolours in the foyer, where a buffet and bar were set up. So in a way finally, after all these years, Libby Dean was exhibited in the Brandywine River Museum with the Wyeths.

I will later add some of my photographs of her and maybe the day, perhaps even a brief video clip of my beautiful grandmother. Principally, I just wanted to make these words available again. I think they make it clear that Libby Dean was a magnificent, unique character who significantly touched many lives. She will always be desperately missed, but her presence will be felt forever.


Sunday, 30 December 2012

This post is really for family, as I thought I would add a snippet of a video filmed during my visit to see Grandmommy (Libby Dean) and her husband Bill back in August 1994.  Lest you forget that that is about 20 years ago, the quality of the video will remind you.  It was before digital, before steadycam, before the camcorders were tiny little things (or phones) that compensated for the lack of light and had microphones that captured the speaker across the room.  And, as you will see, it was before anti-frizz hair products and straighteners were widely available.  Try to ignore all that.

Also, nothing really happens.  It is a dizzying (literally; it was a struggle to pull it together as I kept needing to go lie down or take a motion sickness tablet), jerky rough edit of nauseatingly rapid pans (when in my ex's hands) of nothing going on at all.  But it achieved what I sought to accomplish. It captured a few minutes with dearly loved ones, some of whom very sadly are no longer with us, and others of whom are now almost 20 years older.  It is so dark (in light, not in theme) that you can barely make out what is happening, and one day I might improve that and try to cut out some of the visual noise, but I wanted to post a low resolution file to YouTube today just so I can share it.  It's a late Christmas gift and an early way to ring in the New Year. 

So keep your expectations low because it is not up to the standards one is used to seeing today.  And you really might first want to take a Dramamine.  But some fun things for me are the joy of seeing my great late grandparents' personalities in a typical family setting, my Grandmother's typical thinking that she can add something to a sweatshirt to make it more interesting (as she livened up everything with some paint and talent), my cousin's subtle 'how to smile' demonstration when trying to encourage another beloved late family member to do so, and getting glimpses of the old house.

Watch it if you dare, be patient, and enjoy.

 
 
NB I strongly recommend not watching it in full screen, as I had to lower the resolution, which wasn't great anyway. Also, it freezes for a second after a fuzzy smile episode; bear with it (pun!) as it will sort itself out. If the video doesn't appear above or doesn't work for you, you can watch it on YouTube here:-
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmxxnmyYR1g 
 
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