Over the last 6 months, many people told us how special it was that we would care for our Aunt as we did, and that we were wonderful and amazing people for doing so. While we appreciate such heart felt sentiments, it really wasn’t that at all. Rather it was that Aunt Jane, through all our lives, was so wonderful and amazing that we wanted to, even needed to care for her through this difficult time. Jane Eastland was more than an Aunt to Marianne, Jeanne, Jim and me. While some might say she was a second mother, she was really a role model and mentor who cared for us as if we were her own. In her calm and caring way, she gave us so much without ever asking for anything in return. Many times her gifts were subtle and delivered in such a way that it was only later that we realized how much we had received. Aunt Jane was our “cool Aunt” who always had fun, gave great presents and spoiled us without turning us rotten. Or so I like to think. As kids, on Saturday mornings we would go to her house where we learned to make crafts and decorations out of old computer punch cards Aunt Jane brought home from work. We helped in her garden and did chores like raking leaves, or my personal favorite, mowing the lawn with an old push mower. None of these “chores” were that difficult, but when we finished, she would let us go down to the basement to get an ice cream sandwich out of the freezer as a reward. We would fly down the steps..... so excited ….and eat them in the shade of the back yard or on the screened in porch. She was extremely generous with gifts at birthdays and Christmas and we often found bags of toys waiting for us on our family vacations. We always celebrated Christmas Eve at her house and then Christmas Day at home, so it was like a two for one special. She took Marianne, Jeanne and Jim camping and shortly after I was born, bought the cabin in Grayling. That was perhaps the single, most lasting and wonderful gift of all. We had all our family summer vacations there. From Aunt Jane and our time at the cabin, we came to love nature and the outdoors. She would take us two at a time on weekends to the cabin at other times of the year. She taught us to ski in the winter and we made huge snow forts in the back yard. We learned to recognize animal tracks in the snow and the many species of birds that visited the feeders. As we got older, the cabin played a larger role as a sanctuary and refuge from rigors of our everyday lives; A place for us, just as it was for her, to emotionally recharge and reconnect with our inner being. We all loved to hear her tell of the places she had traveled to and imagined ourselves following in her footsteps. She showed us that we could choose a different path from that of our parents, if we wished, and still have a happy and fulfilling life. We dreamed of being world travelers just as she was. Now I would like to be able to tell you all a profound story that could sum up Aunt Jane’s life in a way that would bring tears of laughter and joy as well as those of sorrow for our loss. But I’m not much of a storyteller, and even if I had one like that I would probably be reduced to a quivering, incomprehensible lump of jelly before I got even halfway through it. The fact is that the best way to understand who she was, is to look around and see who is sitting here today. Each and every one of you is here out of love for Aunt Jane and has a story about her. Maybe many stories: 88 years is a lot of time to make stories. And just as she loved and inspired us in her family, she did that with everyone she met. We know this because of the outpouring of love that so many of you have expressed through cards, flowers, phone calls, emails, and visits. Aunt Jane’s effect on people wasn’t loud and flashy, it was calm and quiet and loving. She was always giving of herself, asking nothing in return. But she had a way of bringing people together - and that continued right up to her final days. As difficult as the last few months have been, we have met and come to love so many people who have been involved in her life and we are the richer for it. So I don’t have that one story that can sum up Jane Eastland in neat package. That is because her life and who she was impacted all of us throughout the entire time we knew her and was an ever evolving story. But her love taught us all to love, dream, and find happiness in friendship, nature, and life experience. And that is her true legacy.