Helen L – Chicago, IL
“Via Media” is a recent tattoo that honors her Anglo-Catholic beliefs. It means “the middle path.”
When the cardinal attempted to excommunicate me that one time and I decided I needed to resign from the Council, I had to call St. Boniface to see if they could bury a protestant there. Some Lambins are buried in St. Boniface. My husband Henry is buried there and I want to be with him, but whatever works: bury me, sprinkle me, whatever.
Depending on what religion I practice at the time, I suppose I’d want a nice Episcopal service, but really it’s about what my kids want. What will comfort them? Maybe I should write a list of songs so they don’t pick the ones that I hate. I expect them to hire some mourners because I’ve lived so long that I’ve outlived a lot of people and I want a decent attendance with outfit changes.
Rather than flowers, I’d rather have donations to certain charities, like to the church I’m currently a part of. Places that are mainstream but not biased–that serve the general population and don’t discriminate. I don’t want a conservative preacher. If they play something like “Gifts of Finest Wheat,” I’ll rise up from wherever I am and smite them. It would be nice if they had a party. I don’t want an inordinant amount of money spent, it makes no sense. I don’t need some kind of fancy coffin.
At Henry’s funeral we had a bagpiper. They piped him in and they piped him out. It was beautiful! The bagpiper was one of the guys from the Shannon Rovers, the ones that pipe for the Mayor. So I asked my daughter, Jeanne, ‘What will you do for me?’ and she says, ‘pass out kazoos.’ I burst out laughing. Everyone would be at my funeral trying to not laugh. My harmonica teacher, Skip, also offered to play for me.
I don’t think about [dying] much. I could, I’m getting up there. I don’t intend to [die]. Nobody wants to think about it because you don’t want to think it can happen to you.
*It should be noted, that we spent this entire interview cracking up. I initially thought to put in parenthesis where the laughter came into the conversation to get the tone right, but gave up after a while because there would have been more parentheses than text.
Side notes:
I certainly believe in resurrection theology, I’m just not sure in what way. I mean, if I had to specify, I’d be 5’10” and blonde next time. For me, believing that this is the end would be really hard, especially because I’ve lost people I love. I don’t know how I would handle it. It’s part of my belief system or hope system or whatever you want to call it. But so many people of different religions believe this isn’t the end.
When I finished the typescript for Death of a Husband, I took it to Henry’s grave and I still smoked at the time and lit a cigarette and I swear he said, ‘Do you have to do that here?’ I don’t see him as being at Boniface. His spirit is still alive, but he’s not there. The Buddhists believe that after a while you cross the water.
There’s a Franciscan scientist nun who is really big on evolution, and she talks about how death is an essential. There are a lot of little deaths in life, and death is essential to new life.
For more on Helen, here are a few articles she has recently been featured in:
http://seniorplanet.org/aging-with-attitude-inked-rebel-helen-lambin/
Basics:
Age: 81
Religious Affiliation: Catholic for many years, now Anglo-Catholic (part of the Episcopal Church, which Helen’s daughter described as ‘Catholic, but without the hate’)
Occupation: Freelance writer
Location: Chicago