on October 26th, 2024 at
Jesus is The Answer Ministries
Pittsburgh, PA
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We’re gathered here today to give honor to God, church, Pastor and congregation, and to offer up our gratitude for the many blessings that we have received. With the blessing of my sisters, Lesha and Gloria, It’s my honor and privilege to be here today to offer a reflection on our one and only mother, Bessie Louise Iglehart.
I’ve chosen to call this a “reflection” rather than a “eulogy” because that feels to me like a far truer descriptor. Bessie didn’t like funerals - at all - and she rarely attended them. As you can see, she hasn’t even come to her own! Bessie much preferred to celebrate life and to expend her energy in support of the living, and in this she was unwaveringly faithful. It didn’t feel right to me to compose words that focused on our mother being dead when she was so fixated on life. Also, in every way imaginable, I embody Bessie’s essence: I look like her, I have her mannerisms, I even laugh like her. When I was a kid, some relatives even called me “Little Bessie” when I got flustered, and eventually I had to concede that, okay, I was Little Bessie. As such, I’m not really offering up a reflection of Bessie, today -- I am a reflection of Bessie, every day.
And it’s my hope to bring to you now a personal understanding of who and what Bessie has been in her many roles during her lifetime, and what she would have wanted her legacy to be. Her life was so full, and our relationship so intricate, that I could speak about her here for hours…but I won’t. Instead, I’ll try to keep this on point, and I’ll do my best to watch the time.
