Kari Sue says hi

If you missed my mom's funeral service, you can see it here. (Don't worry, it's closed-casket.)

[Posted to social media; worth preserving here.]

HERE are lots of things you can do to memorialize someone. People with money buy buildings and put the loved one's name on them (e.g., "the George Q. Zannini Wing of Memorial Hospital"), or start some kind of trust fund or scholarship in the person's name. And that's all very well and good, but such memorials don't give anyone else an idea of what the person was really like. The same holds true with book dedications, works of art, etc.

I don't have a bazillion dollars, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to create a meaningless memorial to my mom. She was the kind of person who would have been horribly embarrassed if anyone commissioned a statue of her, and I don't think she would have been impressed to have her name on a building.

But Mom loved people. She was constantly looking for ways to help others, even when she lost most of her mobility and became home-bound. And if there was something she could do to help someone else and make that person's day a little brighter, she would do it.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to start actively looking for ways to show kindness to the people with whom I come in contact each day. I'll help wherever I see a need. And if people ask, as they sometimes do, "What can I do in return?" I'll say, "When you do something kind for someone else, be sure to tell them 'Kari Sue says hi.' My mom would have liked that."

That will be Karin Buck's viral memorial. And through it, people who never knew my mom will get a little glimpse of what she was like, and how the world was a better place with her in it.

You're more than welcome to join me in doing little kind things and telling people "Kari Sue says hi" if you like. Mom would have liked that too.