MetaChat - All of her breath leaked out.

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13 July 2005

All of her breath leaked out. On June 3, 2005 at 10:45 p.m. in Memphis, Tennessee, Dorothy Gibson Cully, 86, died peacefully, while in the loving care of her two favorite children, Barbara and David. All of her breath leaked out.→[More:]

post by: amberglow at: 12:39 | 22 comments

...The mother of four children, grandmother to 11, great-grandmother to nine, devoted wife for 56 years to the late Ralph Chester Cully and a true friend to many, Dot had been active as a volunteer in the Catholic Church and other community charities for much of the past 25 years.

She was born the second child of six in 1919 as Frances Dorothy Gibson, daughter to Kathleen Heard Gibson and Calvin Hooper Gibson, an inventor best known as the first person since the Middle Ages to calculate the arcane lead-to-gold formula. Unable to actually prove this complex theory scientifically, and frustrated by the cruel conspiracy of the so-called "scientific community" working against his efforts, he ultimately stuck his head in a heated gas oven with a golden delicious apple propped in his mouth. Miraculously, the apple was saved for the evening dessert. Calvin was not. ...

posted by amberglow 13 July | 12:39

Contributions to the Wake County (NC) Hospice Services are welcomed. Opinions about the details of this obit are not, since Mom would have liked it this way.

Hee!

posted by sisterhavana 13 July | 12:54

Ha... ha?

posted by Capn 13 July | 12:54

I bet Calvin could have convinced that pesky "scientific community," had he turned some lead into gold.

posted by papercake 13 July | 12:55

At the time of her death, Dot was visiting her daughter, Carol in Memphis. Carol and her husband, Ron, away from home attending a "very important conference" at a posh Florida resort, rushed home 10 days later after learning of the death. Dot's other children, dutifully at their mother's side helping with the normal last minute arrangements - hospice notification, funeral parlor notice, revising the last will, etc. - happily picked up the considerable slack of the absent former heiress

.

The apple may have been saved, but the grapes have obviously gone sour.

posted by jrossi4r 13 July | 13:05

Thank you, amberglow.

posted by frecklefaerie 13 July | 13:27

and that you, ff, for giving me a place to hinge a quote

posted by ethylene 13 July | 13:29

dot dot dot indeed

posted by ethylene 13 July | 13:33

This is definitely the kind of obit my mom would want. Rad.

Wait a sec:

At the time of her death, Dot was visiting her daughter, Carol in Memphis. Carol and her husband, Ron, away from home attending a "very important conference" at a posh Florida resort, rushed home 10 days later after learning of the death.

Was Carol in Memphis with Dot, or was she in Florida? I'm confused.

posted by Specklet 13 July | 13:39

I get the impression that Dot went to visit Carol, but Carol went off to her "important" conference at a "posh resort," leaving Dot in Memphis and couldn't be bothered to cut her vacation short once Dot took a turn for the worse.

posted by jrossi4r 13 July | 14:28

More. (From Romenesko.)

posted by mudpuppie 13 July | 15:28

That is the oddest obit I've ever read. Cool. :-)

posted by deborah 13 July | 15:29

Oh wow, I'm so glad, per mudpuppie's link, to know that is for real. So entirely awesome.

posted by Divine_Wino 13 July | 15:32

I wonder what the obit would have said if the other two kids (the not-normal and not-favorites) had written it?

posted by mudpuppie 13 July | 15:46

thanks, mudpuppie...i thought it was the columnist making it all up too.

posted by amberglow 13 July | 15:47

Wow, that's a great send-off.

posted by me3dia 13 July | 16:18

The line "All of her breath leaked out." just keeps going through my head over and over. I shall need to write it down for future reference.

posted by ITheCosmos 13 July | 16:24

too bad we don't have some page where we can add lines from mechat and just have them
like instead of taglines
phrases of curious interest

posted by ethylene 13 July | 16:28

Could we not make a thread and beg dodgy to sidebar it, so to speak?

posted by Divine_Wino 13 July | 16:34

we could but he may be close to bed and i keep getting errors
he may be fiddling as we speaketh

posted by ethylene 13 July | 16:40

Ah well, memorization and recitation after the port and walnuts it will have to be then.

posted by Divine_Wino 13 July | 16:46

thanks, mudpuppie...i thought it was the columnist making it all up too.
posted by amberglow 13 July | 15:47

Yep -- sounded like it.

They apparently got enough of a similar response that the ombudsman of the paper had to address the issue. (He's the columnist in question.)

posted by mudpuppie 13 July | 17:33

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