#252 Tips from Dead People, Part 2 – Mary McGreevy

And Renee's obituary made it spun around the globe a little bit with good reason, as you'll see, because It's just the kind of person that everybody would want to meet.

So this is Renee.

A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday.

Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renee Corrin at the impossible old age of 84 is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing.

A more disrespectful, trash-reading, trash-talking woman was not to be found.

Often frustrated by the stifling conservative culture of the South, Renee turned her voracious mind to the home front, becoming a model stay-at-home parent, a super mom, really just the perfect PTA lady, and ha ha ha ha, just kidding, y'all.

Yes, Renee lied a lot.

But on the plus side, Renee didn't cook, she didn't clean, and she was lousy with money too.

Here's what Renee was great at.

Dying her red roots, weekly manicures, dirty jokes, pier fishing, rolling joints, and buying dirty magazines.

Hers was a bawdy, rowdy life, lived large, broke, and loud.

we thought renee could not be killed god knows people tried renee has been toying with death for decades but always beating it and running off in her silver chevy nova covid couldn't kill renee neither could pneumonia twice infections blood clots bad feet breast cancer twice two mastectomies two recessions multiple bankruptcies marriage to a philandering sergeant major divorce in the 70s six kids one cesarean an abortion from the quietly famous abortionist of spring lake north carolina or an affair with larry king in her 60s in her memory please think of the brightly frocked frivolous funny and smart jewish redhead who was always about to grift you tell a filthy joke and for larry king's sake laugh bye mommy we loved you to bits

Wow.

Yeah.

And if nothing else, just raise funny kids.

Talk about the flawed life held up as an exemplar, right? Like this, this is who she was.

And

I,

I don't know if I've ever read another obituary that actually mentioned abortion, which obviously that's a hugely divisive topic.

But the point for me and the reason why I keep that in when I use her obituary in speeches and stuff is that this isn't about perfection.

This isn't airbrushing.

This is her real life.

This is who she was.

And once again, if you're using an obituary to stay close to your person after they died, you're not going to go back in the middle of the night when you're missing them oh so much.

You're not going to go back to a formula, a template, the never met a stranger kind of thing.