Helen's Sendoff

Above – Frances on left, Helen Steele on the right, back of Pete Steele’s Store and home.

We went to a funeral Sunday of an old childhood friend Helen Steele Hopper Fowler. Her father Pete Steele owned Steele’s store just across the street from our apartment in the Clay Homes.

The funeral was a Baptist two preacher Funeral. One was Helen's ex-pastor. One was her first cousin. He talked as if she had plenty of spunk still left in her. He told how they fussed at each other in a humorous way. He kept us laughing. We were celebrating Helen’s life.

At the funeral I got to talk to Helen’s nephew, a lifelong friend of mine, Tommy and his sister, Carolyn, who is a facebook buddy and Helen's sister Jean.

Also I got to talk to the Clayton siblings who lived next door to us in the Clay Homes. There are five of seven Clayton siblings still alive. They were all there. We talked how, as kids we didn’t know about knocking on doors, we just opened the door and went in.

Which reminds me of a story I heard on me during that period: I don’t remember it, I was only 3 or 4 years old. I walked in the apartment of the family that lived above the Clayton Family. The lady was lying on the couch with a headache and didn’t feel like messing with me. She heard me walk up to her and sa a few words she couldn’t understand. She continue to lie on the couch with her eyes shut like she was asleep.

Then suddenly she felt something strange on her face. I had laid a stinking stray cat down on her.

The funeral brought back plenty of memories of my earliest childhood.

The below pictures: one is my sister’s birthday party and the other, that includes me, is the first day of school. Helen is very identifiable in both.