This week seems to be funeral week. I am officiating a funeral today and attending a funeral tomorrow.

An aunt of mine passed away this week and I am attending the funeral tomorrow. She leaves a great legacy. Her husband was my dad’s oldest brother. He passed away a few years ago and Aunt Helen remained in their Iowa town after his death. My family would stop and see them on trips between Minneapolis and my hometown in Kansas. Our boys grew up visiting Uncle Marshall and Aunt Helen. We would stop to have a meal with them at a local diner and there would be long conversations.

The conversations were always about family. Our families were close. They would talk about their kids and their grandkids and I would get to catch up on cousins I knew growing up. I would catch them up on our boys and let them know the latest from my Mom and Dad. (They already knew that stuff, I’m sure, because my parents would always be corresponding with them.)

Aunt Helen would occasionally write letters. She had the most gorgeous penmanship.

I remember spending a summer with them when I was in high school. My uncle was an auctioneer and I was able to go to an estate auction he conducted.

Their kids and grandkids are amazing people. They work hard, raise great families, and love God. I will get to see most, if not all, of them at the funeral.

Great people like Marshall and Helen Thompson don’t get written up in big magazines or newspapers. There aren’t any great movies made.

But great people like Uncle Marshall and Aunt Helen leave behind great legacies in great families. They leave great memories in their communities. They leave behind the sense that the world was a better place with them, and the world will miss them as they leave.

Their memory isn’t diminished because they leave behind families that will carry on their example. It will be out of the limelight, but salt of the earth doesn’t grab headlines. It just does its job.

May I pick up that legacy left by Aunt Helen.