He who has the last laugh...

Alma D Sunderland... I'm not sure what it was about the Canadians and their odd names. Alma's Dad's name Was Luger Caron and her Mom Lumina (Dancause) Caron. Guess it makes me happy I was born in the USA ...

Alma seemed like such a bad name that in order to get to her we branded her the name of Bertha after all how could you get any worse than Alma correct?

Late Sept of 1984 my grandmother had been having chest pain but never said a word to my mom. I had been estranged from the family that summer and had been living back in Lawrence with my 1/2 sisters. By the time I had gotten new of my grandmothers problem she was already bedridden at the Lawrence General Hospital.

I moved back home around that time to help out with the stuff that was happening. We would take daily trips up to the hospital to see Bertha and spend time with her. She seemed to be doing much better than anyone had expected but she kept saying that her only way home would be in a pine box.

It's funny when death ensues at old age because 2 of the oddest things can take place. They say the elderly know when their time has come and it certainly seemed to fit what was happening with my grandmother.

The 2nd thing is that when something major happens it seems they always get a lot better right before they leave us. I've seen this time and time again with family members and friends elderly relatives. We call it the calm before the storm.

Nov 4th 1984

I had been going to band practice not far from my home and we were standing in front of where we rehearsed very late at night maybe around 1:30 am or so. At the drop of a hat I saw my mothers car speed past us at a high rate of speed heading for the general and I knew this wasn't good news.

Diane and I got in my car and headed behind her not being able to catch up, my friend Pete right behind us. When I got to the hospital it was what I had suspected "Bertha" had taken a bad turn and this was it. I went down to let Diane and Pete know what was happening and my friend offered to take Diane to her house for me.

By the time I got back upstairs it was just a matter of minutes before she was gone but it was one of those rare instances where she was lucky enough to be surrounded by her family when she left...


I know at this point this story certainly doesn't seem to have a last laugh at such a sombering moment, but it was the next day that would end up having the oddest turn of circumstance.

We had gone down to our local funeral director that our family had used for years to make the arrangements for Bertha's funeral. In the midst's of setting up the obituary for Alma D Sunderland we learned that it wasn't really her name and that the D in the middle was in fact her real name...

Derilda A Caron was her birthright ............. DERILDA!! Somehow all of those years of calling her Bertha and thinking there couldn't be anything worse had just been trumped with an Ace card!!

RIP Bertha we miss you