A Loving Tribute

Often when I was teaching Of Mice and Men, one of the writing assignments would be to write an obituary for Lennie.  Sometimes the submissions were serious; others were humorous or witty. While obituaries are written because of someone's death, I have always been intrigued by them and how they express a person's life in a nutshell.  At the beginning of March a former neighbor lost her mother.   The obituary is one of the most creative and interesting I have read---and I asked her if I could share it with you.  Here it is:

Karen Lue "Lue" Short

November 01, 1947 - March 06, 2014

Karen "Lue" Short of North Manchester, formerly of Noblesville and West Lafayette, Indiana,  passed away on March 6, 2014 after a long illness with pulmonary fibrosis. She died in her bed, at home with her parrot by her side, listening to Ricky Martin sing "Living La Vida Loca." She was preceded in death by her adoptive parents, George and Ruby Short of Edgewater, Florida. Also preceding her demise were Isabell, her converted and beloved bread truck that was a converted living space, and her parrots Tootsie, Hamlet and Quinto.

Karen lived as a child in West Virginia, moved to Noblesville in the 1950's and graduated from Noblesville HS. She lived most of her adult life in West Lafayette, Indiana. She was happily divorced from at least two men, the first being Gerald "Ray" Wiegand of Monon, Indiana. He is also happily divorced. Karen attended Sons of Abraham in Lafayette.

Karen is survived by her sister, Carol Short and her favorite daughter, Tova Wiegand-Green (Richard) of North Manchester and 4 grandchildren: Stephanie (Doug) Bragg of Markle, Indiana; Elaina (Josh) Johns-Wolfe of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Will Green and Ben Green of North Manchester, and a great-grandchild, Charlotte Bragg of Markle, Indiana.

Karen traveled the highways, hitch hiking, loved CA, NV, NY, and VA; never enjoyed humidity of FL, but went there anyway.  She attended both IU and Purdue, accumulating over 200 combined credits. Karen was an avid IU fan, her Favorite Daughter was a Hoosier by birth, but a Boilermaker by the Grace of God. She spoke Hebrew, Portuguese and Spanish, and she had studied French, Romanian, Russian and Danish. Karen worked as a tutor for men's PU basketball team members, florist, health aide at Heritage Healthcare and Soldier's Home in West Lafayette, and as a hot dog vendor in West Lafayette at the Village. She was known as the "Hot Dog Lady" by a generation of Purdue students that frequented the bars of the VIllage. She wore crazy and wacky hats every night she worked. Karen was a girl scout, of the worst kind, you know, that one that has something in the backpack for EVERY eventuality. She enjoyed buying second-hand things at Goodwill, dumpster diving in May after PU let out, camping (anywhere), not living in a house with a foundation (see Isabell above), and coming and going as she pleased. She collected books and puzzles and HATS. And she required all scheduled activities to be around the Jeopardy schedule - tried never to miss an episode. She also listened to the Prairie Home Companion, religiously. In fact her favorite vacation of all time was when she went to Lake Wobegon and learned how to make Norwegian banana bread for the Lutheran bake sale. Her happiest and fondest memories are of summer camp, especially the year her parents forgot to come get her for an extra week. If you wish to honor this experience, please see the Donate link. She wants her gold teeth back from the dentist that yanked them - those were HER teeth to keep. Her last wish is to have the song "Another One Bites the Dust" played at her memorial. If you have no cash to donate, Karen would like you to consider visiting your local farmer's market, hiking a local park, or making some homemade chicken noodle soup next time your neighbor is sick, or as a last resort, pay your next restaurant bill with all one-dollar bills, just to make them wonder how you got them.

A Memorial Picnic and Celebration of Karen's life will be held at Happy Hollow Park in West Lafayette, Indiana (1301 Happy Hollow Rd) on May 18th, from 1PM-5PM in Pavilion #4. Hot dogs will be served until we run out! Memorials can be made to sponsor a summer camper at http://www.brethrenretreat.org.

- See more at: http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/KarenLueShort/Subpage.aspx?mod=2#sthash.YzYosto8.dpuf