Eulogy for My Sister, Zulie
I have been dreading this moment. When Verdie called this morning and told me that Missy would like for me to say a few words, I felt a great wave of despair come over me. This is a difficult thing for me to do.
Zue was such a great person that it is a great honor for me to tell you about her. But I don't really have to tell you about her, because just about everyone in this room knows her and has been touched by her gentle life. I was especially blessed because I grew up as her little brother and through the years she (and Verdie) took care of me.
Zue did many great things for me and I like to think of these as gifts. Perhaps the best gift which she gave me was to let me know, without having to tell me outright, that she expected me to excel, that she expected me to do well in life. She did this for all those around her. In my case, it was seeing that I excelled in school and that I went to the university.
She gave me many material gifts: I remember so well the good clothes she gave me when she would go to visit in Avoyelles. She always gave good clothes, because she didn't believe in buying anything but the best. But the best gift she ever gave me was that challenge to do my very best.
She gave me the magnificent gift of sincere and genuine love and affection for her husband and her children. She was such a model mother for Al and Missy and for Herbert's children. She gave all of them that special unqualified and unlimited love and affection.
She gave me the gift of the example of her great love for our parents and the unconditional generosity which she demonstrated throughout her life toward them. I think especially about how she (along with Verdie) took such loving care of our mother for so many years.
She gave me the gift of being an example of a truly loving person. She was a giving person. She gave me the gift of being an example of how to sacrifice for others. She was faithful and loyal to her family and all those around her.
Zue will be missed tremendously. We are called by our faith to believe that now she has gone to God and that she rests in that place where there is no pain and no suffering and no worry. We are also called to remember her in our own lives. We are called to pass on our gifts to others.
---Jim Bolner, Sr.
Franklin, LA, December 26, 1998