Ann Elaine Gordon

On April 22, 2012, Ann Elaine Gordon; beloved daughter of Maeanna E. Gordon and the late Charles H. Gordon; dear sister of Charles Gray Gordon (Buck) and his wife Penelope; loving aunt of Kimberly Hallstrom and her husband Armand, and Jacob, Zachary, and Fawn Gordon; beloved great aunt of Jarrod, Jonathan, Brendan and Emmett.

Relatives and friends may gather at Miller-Dippel Funeral Home, Inc., 6415 Belair Rd, Baltimore, Md 21206, on Wednesday 3-5 & 7-9pm. Funeral services will be held at the funeral home on Thursday at 11am. Interment Parkwood Cemetery. Donations may be made to The Humane Society 1601 Nicodemus Rd Reisterstown, Md 21136 and/or Mercy High School 1300 Northern Parkway Baltimore, Md 21239. Online tributes may be left at www.miller-dippelfuneralhome.com

Eulogy for Ann Gordon:

The days of wine and roses and you.

After graduating from Mercy, Ann took a job as an operator at the phone company. She worked there two years before joining US Customs. Soon, she moved from Customs to the United States Postal Service, a job she kept for 40 years. She started out as a secretary and worked her way up to supervisor. She worked in Human Resources, Information Systems and Safety. She always said the post office was a crazy place but she made the best of it. She liked to brighten her co-workers’ days with the newest jokes she found. She would also share stories about the goings on at work with her family. I have never met some of the people she talked about but their names I won’t forget, like Debbie, Elaine, Diane, Dave, Beverly and Kenny.

Everyone that knew Ann knew she was a special person. She had so many talents and interests: movies, sewing, teaching, reading, photography, cooking and animals. My life is well-documented as one of Ann’s favorite subjects for photography. She excelled at taking scenic panoramas. She would often mesh her passion for photography and love of animals. I must have gone on a lot of trips to different zoos with Ann. There are tons of pictures of me taken at the Baltimore Zoo, feeding the llama that bit me, and the Catoctin Zoo, feeding the swan that bit me. Ann, however, didn’t like to have her picture taken, but if you could have seen her off to the side laughing you might wonder if I really was one of her favorites, while all the biting was going on.

I did like to help Ann and get involved in her interests. Sometimes it might have been due to some bribery. If I had a nickel for every time she told me she would give me a nickel if I would do something for her I would be rich. Like, feed her mean parrot Petey, who enjoyed biting me every chance he got. Or playing with Brenna her Belgian Sheppard, a notorious ankle biter that thought children were chew toys and then later on Babe her Boxer, who I affectionately nicknamed “Devil Dog”. For some reason I always kept coming back for more.

It had a lot to do with Ann’s gift for sewing. From the time I was a little girl, no matter how big the dream Ann could make it come true, like the Cinderella dress she made for me when I was 5 or the Bride of Frankenstein dress she made for me when I was 17. Her imagination seemed boundless to me. Like a Fairy Godmother, Ann would sit me in front of a mirror and make it happen, including makeup changes and everything else.

I thought she knew everything. Before there was The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) there was Ann. She could tell you the actors in any movie and the other roles they had played. She let me do things that my dad and grandmom wouldn’t approve of, like stay up to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, get my ears pierced and watch scary movies. She taught me many things too, like how to watch a scary movie (under a blanket with your feet all tucked in), how to unfasten your finger from the sewing machine after you sewed through the nail, how to give CPR (whenever I filled out one of her Red Cross classes that was too small), how to put out a grease fire when learning to cook funnel cake and how to drive (a skill I passed on to my brother Jake and he passed on to our brother Zack and so on). I smile at the times and laughs we shared.

However, there were some things that Ann thought she needed to do alone. I still remember the day when she called me to give me the news about her illness. Even then she did not use the “C” word. Her illness was somewhat of a surprise to even those closest to her. The good thing about it, if there is such a thing as a good thing about any illness, is the time we all had to help Ann and the time to reminisce. Through it all she remained ever graceful and funny. When it was close to the end, I called her mom on my cell and held it up for her on speakerphone. After talking for a while, Ann reached out to touch the screen and before I could wonder what she was up to she had swiped her finger and disconnected the call. I asked her if she was done and she said “Good Night” and let me know with a little smile that it was time to go.

Some ask why this person now with so much to offer? I don’t know, but I do know that she had a good, good life full of memories. Ann, I’ll give you a nickel if you save me a place by your side.

[One Republic’s Good Life Plays softly if the background and swells at the end of the speech.]