Sunday....January 30th...2011

This is the part that dear friend Claudia spoke to at the Celebration.... #2 of 5....I don't know if folks have been following the Eulogy and these testimonials...they are all spectacular and lessons galore...

We all live to die. Some just do it so much better than others. Linda
lived with Gusto, Strength, Courage, Love, and a real Zest. It is no
wonder that so many of us have gathered here today to celebrate her life.

I would like to share a few of my memories of Linda Rasmussen Emkin Wood.

I met Linda just a few years ago. I believe the year was 1959. Linda
was about 13 and a few names shorter then.

We instantly became good friends and confidantes.

I know that there is a code that, 'what happens in High School stays in
High School,' but I think it only appropriate that I share with you
that I was with Linda when she committed her first crime...and knowing
Linda, her last.

Linda had just gotten her drivers license, and had persuaded her mom to
let her take the car one evening. There was a full car of us girls, but
I can't remember anyone other than Linda and I. We had just left the
movie theater and were laughing and talking and "just being teen girls"
when Linda accidentally ran the only stop light in Newberg. As luck
would have it, a police officer was at the light going the opposite
direction at the time. We knew we had been spotted so while he turned
his car around to come after us, we turned down some side streets and
wound around in the dark neighborhoods thinking we could hide from him.
Well we weren't very good at being bad, so shortly he was pulling us
over.

His first question to us was "where you girls going?" We said "We are
headed home." Well he looked at where we were and where Linda's license
said "home" was, and it was obvious what we were trying to do. Linda,
always being the honest person, said "We accidently ran the light and
when we saw you there, we panicked." He did ticket her, but we didn't
end up having to bail ourselves out of jail!

We were adolescents and at that awkward age where we worried about
everything and everything was Huge, and Exciting, or Devastating. I
noticed while many of us were stressing over who liked us and who didn't,
Linda was not concerned. She believed everyone liked her and if they
didn't, that was their problem. Linda had that kind of self confidence. I
also noted her ability to talk easily with everyone, especially boys. One
day, we were in her room sitting Indian style on her bed, looking at the
huge red heart with a silhouette of a dancing couple. (Linda had made
this heart for our sweetheart dance and had brought it home afterward for
a memento.) Now I have to back up a bit here. Linda, in those days,
wore these white- framed glasses with, as I remember, these kind of
"wings" on them. I think Dave has posted a picture somewhere on the bog.

Ok, got the picture?

I said to Linda. "You have so much confidence and you are so relaxed
around boys. I have three sisters, and no boy cousins, they are strange,
foreign creatures to me. I don't know what to talk about I don't know
what they THINK!" Linda tilted her head downward, chin on chest, raised
her eyebrows and looking at me over those white- framed glasses said "I
have two older brothers, so trust me when I say they DON'T"
In my life, I have found that to be so true!

Our Linda was a giver. Probably everyone here can think of something
Linda has given them. It might have been as simple as a smile or that
twinkle in her eye, or her unconditional love, or it may have been
something tangible. I was in her home the other day and commented on the
beautiful wreath over her fireplace. Immediately, members of her family
started telling of the wreaths that Linda had made for them over the
years. I wish I had taken notes so I could repeat some of them here, but
the only one I remember now was the one she had made with Teddy Bears on
it. Teddy Bears because her friend was about to be a first time
Grandmother.

BUT I will always remember the day I stopped by her home and Linda, who
was on oxygen, unsteady on her feet, and lacking much energy was making
cinnamon rolls. Now I don't mean the kind that come in a tube and you
crack it on the side of the counter to get the rolls out, I mean the
kind that start with sugar, flour and yeast. She would mix a bit and then
rest a moment, but she got them made.

When they were finished, she removed her oxygen, and with the aid of
Dave's arm for support, we walked across the street with the rolls and
gave them to the neighbors. I was amazed.

I do believe that if anyone is lucky enough to get a glimpse of God, in
the future, expect him to be about 20 pounds heavier because Linda's
baking and giving did not stop last Saturday.