Ever heard of recycling faith?

Neither had I until last week when I was gathered with family members just before a memorial service for my Aunt Laura (Sossamon Turner).

The story began many decades ago, according to ‘Little Laura,’ Aunt Laura’s daughter. (She’s a grown woman now with a child of her own, but to all of her cousins, she will always be ‘Little Laura.’)

My great-grandmother, Louise Cody DeCamp (now you know where my dad and I got our name) had this little wooden cross she kept with her at all times, but especially so during the last months of her life when she was confined to her bed in the house next to my grandparents’ on College Drive. The DeCamp house is no longer, but in its place is a beautiful garden next to the Episcopal Church.

I don’t recall the year my great-grandmother died, but all of my cousins and I remember her house and the room in which she stayed. I must admit for the younger ones of us, visits were a bit unsettling.

During those bedridden days, Little Laura explained, our great-grandmother continuously held her wooden cross. This information, I’m sure came from Aunt Laura, as Little Laura is younger than I.

The cross fell from her hands and onto the bedroom floor as she drew her last breath. My great-aunt, Ruth DeCamp McMillan, found the cross on the floor and put it away for safe keeping.

After Ruth died some 40 years ago, Aunt Laura found the cross and kept it with her until the day she died.

Without going into details, Aunt Laura dealt with more than her share of life’s curveballs, but always, always, seemed to have a positive attitude about life.

According to those who knew her best, she was a woman of deep and abiding Christian faith and her wooden cross was symbolic of that faith.

When her children were still hanging their stockings by the chimney with care, Aunt Laura had copies of the cross made and gave one to each child. Not something a child would get too excited about, but something all of the Turner children said they remember getting.

Aunt Laura was holding the original when she passed away last Tuesday evening, Little Laura told us.

She also explained how her mother was big on recycling and, knowing that, you might be able to guess where this is headed.

Little Laura and brothers Frank and Scott had enough copies of the cross made to not only give one to all of the family members, but to hand out to all of those who attended the memorial service in Rock Hill.

As she explained during the service, this was the family’s way to recycle their mother’s faith.

What a memorable tribute to a wonderful person.

Earlier this year, my Aunt Will Hartzog died, making this year a sad one for our family. Having lived in Gaffney all of her life, most of you reading this know what a true Southern lady and Carolina Gamecock fan Will was, but you might not have heard about the very memorable tribute her boys — Tommy, Bobby, Rhett and Charles — had in store for the end of her service. The Gamecocks’ adopted theme song, “2001,” played as she was escorted from the church.

Not that any of us who knew and loved these two special women needed anything out of the ordinary by which to remember them, but how fitting that we do.

These two funerals and the special tributes of each might give us all cause to wonder what, if anything, our friends and loved ones would come up with for us when the time arrives.

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.