{"id":2523,"date":"2026-10-08T03:06:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2026-10-08T03:06:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:06:40","slug":"the-funeral-of-anna-theresa-myers-hall-beede","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/2026\/10\/08\/the-funeral-of-anna-theresa-myers-hall-beede\/","title":{"rendered":"The Funeral of Anna Theresa Myers Hall-Beede"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On September 22, 2018 I attended the funeral my Aunt Anna at The Grove Church<\/a> [7343 Carolina Boulevard, Clyde, NC], an old little church in a cemetery. I made the 12 hour drive myself direct, making it just in-time to be present for the entirety of the ceremony. I felt it relevant to record it in hopes of transcribing it later on. After 6 years, and implementing openai\/whisper<\/a> on my home server this transcription was finally possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

{voice} If I may say one word before we begin. Welcome to the Grove. The historic church that was started in 1910, completed in 1911 over in Big Sandymush, Bunker County, Leicester, North Carolina, and we moved it here. And I went down to talk with Anna and Donnie. She loved the church. She chose the church. She chose and wanted to be here. And what a blessing in our hearts that she wanted to be here with us. And please, read this if you have not. This is from Anna. This is from deep in her heart and in her soul. Very, very special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} And friends, we’re here today to celebrate life, not death. Celebration, some would call it a memorial service. Sometimes they used to be called a funeral. But the truth of the matter is, for Anna Hall Beede,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it’s a celebration of life. As was pointed out, she’s a deeply and a beloved lady. She lived well the years that God gave her here on this earth. We will never understand the beginning of life and the ending of life. But we know that with God, life is forever. And there is no illness or pain for Anna anymore. The psalmist writes these words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to its setting,\u00a0
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is just in all his ways.
The Lord is kind in all his doings.
The Lord is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2 Timothy, chapter 4 verse 7, the apostle Paul writes these words:
I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna could have repeated these words. She fought the good fight for a long time. So we come today and we think of life and death. Life is like the sunrise. So beautiful and so tender that life comes. But every sunrise in its beauty of the newborn baby has a sunset. A sunset. That is where the sun goes down. And sometimes we wonder, where does it go? Where does it go? But as we get older, we know it’s just traveled on to give somebody else a sunrise and a sunset.\u00a0 But that’s the beauty of nature that God has given us. I won’t tell you all the mysteries of life because I do not know them. But I know a God who understands the mysteries. And he tells us, he wrote through the writer of Ecclesiastes who said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For everything there is a season
and a time for every matter under heaven.
Time to be born and a time to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 52 years Anna traveled this journey of life and she lived it as fully as she could. She guided her family and above all else, she made memories that will go on forever. As one generation shares with another. Just as we make memories for other people, we decide what kind of memories we want to make. But for ourselves today, we grieve for her loss in our life, especially gone. I know. It’s a tremendous loss. You have a lot of fun together. You made memories. But may God search our hearts. So we come today acknowledging our human loss. May God search our hearts that in pain we may find comfort and in sorrow hope, in death resurrection. If she could speak to us today, we believe this is what Anna would say as you listen to the words of the song that my husband Dave will play. It is well with my soul. Friends, it is well with Anna’s soul today. She’s been cured of three lung diseases. So listen to the words. All we can do when we gather and worship God today and to remember and celebrate life is to understand the impact it makes in our own life, the difference that we go away from this historic building today. Being able to sing, it is well with my soul because I know it will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Piano Rendition of \u201cIt Is Well with My Soul\u201d<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray. Lord, in this peaceful place, let us feel the comfort. You know what grief is because you grieve for your own son. But you were comforted in knowing that he came to earth for a purpose, that we might come to know you, and that we may come to find strength and peace and joy in our relationship with you. So as we are gathered here today, be the great comfort to all of those who mourn. Be the encourager for those who need encouragement. Be the one who gives hope that life truly does have meaning and that when we know you, we know you, and we know what love is. So thank you for loving us long before we knew what love was. Thank you for your presence in this place today, for truly we know it is a place of peace and memories, and truly we know that life will go on for the living in Christ Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s no better place that we can go than to God’s holy word when we’re troubled or seeking, or searching, or need comfort. We do not read it often enough. We try to think we have to understand the whole Bible in order to read it? Friends, we don’t. There’s so many promises of God in the scripture. Romans 8, verse 38 and 39 says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor principalities, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We first, one of the most popular psalms that David, who certainly lived, King David, lived life fully in all his sins, in all his glory, his achievements. But he was a man after God’s own heart because he knew how to say, I’m sorry. He knew how to ask forgiveness. And he knew how to love. He was a shepherd growing up in the fields of his fathers looking after the sheep. But he came in this relationship with God to understand the meaning behind this beautiful song he wrote from Psalm 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not wait.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
And he leads me beside steel waters.
And he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his namesake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valleys, I fear no evil.
For you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
And you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn’t that beautiful? And he wrote it from the heart. He wrote it from life’s experiences. We have our own songs. You’ll hear a reading today that Anna wrote and she wrote it from the heart. She wrote it from the inspiration of God. But let’s look at another psalm that David wrote. Very popular one. Psalm 100, This is one just for us. You know, sometimes we just have to be happy and pray. Praise whatever. The weather. The people in our life. Praise God. But praise that we have a new chance. Whatever life offers us we always have a new death and a new chance. So we can relate with this psalm that David wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said make a joyful noise to the Lord
all of the earth. Worship the Lord with godness
and come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us and we are his.
We are his people and the sheep of his passion.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
And give thanks to him and bless his name.
For the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever.
And his faithfulness to all generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is that song children sing called be happy. Just be happy. It doesn’t matter what happens in life. Be happy. Good wisdom. Because there’s always a new sun coming up. So David wrote his sad songs and he wrote his happy songs. And then there are times in life that we need to be confident. We need to feel hope. I’ve lost a son and I’ve lost a husband. Not this one. [laughing] I need to cry about that. But I know he didn’t first see me. I know what it means to have friends that stand by me when I’m tough times. I know what it’s like to not know what’s ahead in the future. But I also know what it’s like to know who’s in charge of the future. And God sent his son Jesus to earth because we human beings had such a hard time understanding unconditional life. We could not comprehend that from a human standpoint. So God said I’ll come to earth myself and I’ll show them how much I love them. I will teach them that it’s not the law and obedience that I want them to follow. I simply want a relationship with the human beings I created. So I will send my son to kill him. And then I’m going to do something. Put action behind the love I have for those I created. My son will die on the cross and take all their sins. Everybody’s sins to the cross. All they have to do is look up and ask for forgiveness. And they will be forgiven. And then they will know how much I love them. So that’s why God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And whosoever there is in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And so Jesus, knowing the humanness of his defilements, just as he knows our own humanness, but on the upper room the night before he died in the Gospel of John, the lately’s words of wisdom that speak just as clearly to us today as they did to the disciples in that upper room last night who were scared to death. They didn’t want Jesus to die. They didn’t like this talk that he had to die for God’s purpose. So John recorded these words that I’d like to share, selected from John 14, verse 1 through 3. This is Jesus speaking I want you to pretend he’s speaking to you and to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God. Believe also in me.
In my Father’s house there were many dwelling places.
And if it were not so, would I have told you
that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and will take you to myself
so that where I am, there you may be also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you know, let’s see, then I’m going over to 6 and 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, you will know my Father also.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I’m going to skip over to verse 18 through 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will not leave you orphaned.
I am coming to you in a little fog.
The world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live,
you also will live. On the day you will know
that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.
They who have my commandments and keep them
are those who love me. And those who love me will be loved by my Father.
And I will love them and reveal myself to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then 25 through 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled
and do not let them be afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know friends, I don’t know what Anna’s doing up in Heaven now. My goodness she did so many adventurous things when she was here on Earth. I don’t know what she’s doing but I do know one thing, she’s having a ball. No more. No more. Perfect peace and perfect health. Praise be to God. Anna, I think now, what a wonderful world. Anna requested that it be played. I think we want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Louis Armstrong \u201cWhat a Wonderful World\u201d<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a Wonderful World. And Lisa, her sister, is going to read the words that Anna requested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} A lot of things happened the day that I died. Many things changed. That whole world busted with energy, as it always does. The appointments that were so important were left unattended on the day that I died. All of the plans that I made will never come to fruition. The calendar that I wrote the calendar that was ruled has ruled my days and nights for years and will no longer be relevant at all. All of my material possessions that I’ve gone before will be up for taking material possessions for those who want them or will carelessly be thrown aside. My critics can no longer hurt me in their harsh words and never call me an angry woman again. The arguments I won, they gave me such a sense of satisfaction no longer brings solace or comfort. I no longer rush to answer all of the urgent notifications of texts and calls and emails that they’re off. Their gravity is forever and all of the regrets I wasted some of those sleepless nights on are forever and where they should have always been firmly placed in the past. The worries about the size of my bones, my thinning hair and the deepening wrinkles on my face are gone and which in myself I so desperately wanted others to have is a mirage they now have to complete themselves in it. My reputation, flawless and so work for is of little concern. All those things even small they cause me such anxiety and so many sleepless nights are now obscured. The mystifying questions about life and death and what it all means were at once clear. All of this is working true on the day I get ready to serve. For all of this that has come to pass there is still more things that will occur. There will be those people who truly will love me who will now breathe the pain of my past and now suffer a new void that has been beaten by fate. They will feel unwilling to accept that my time has come. A part of them is stolen from them on the day I die. And what they will wish for more than anything on that day is to be able to spend just one more day with me in it. I notice where I myself have reached over the loss of those I love. And because I have more I will try to remember that this time is precious. It is infinite and is fleeting. It must not be wasted. For this reason I ask that you not place materials before moments. I cease worrying about those things which are beyond my control. All of those things that seem to matter so much don’t. Do not let them compete for your attention or go against those things that truly do matter, those moments and people that allow you to actually live, love your life. Do not be lost of the joy you deserve. Spend your energy on those who make you feel alive, who want to spend their precious time with you. Dance with them before it’s too late. Do not waste the daylight any longer in your precious days before the one in which your life ends. Don’t keep giving your life to all that seems to matter because when you die and are gone from this earth, that’s death won’t matter at all. Yes, I have let this work come, and one day so shall be, that if only you live each day like it was the first, last and this day you let it happen. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} Anna also requested, go rest high on that mountain by Vince Gill. And with a little effort, we found the music to be played. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Vince Gill \u201cGo Rest High On That Mountain\u201d<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen. I think Anna would be pleased, don’t you think so, Don? She requested that, and family was able to pull it off. But I want to open it up now. She was your friend, or she was a family member. Is there something you would like to share? Something funny? Something just maybe you and her knew, and you can talk about her now, but you can’t do anything about it. Or something that you really would just like to share. Just stand up and begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} How are you all doing? I’m the ugly one. The ugly ones are up here. You see that I’m going to be, I’m the oldest brother. And I just want to say, I think Steve would be the other one. When we were told Anna was going to be coming forth, Steve and I both knew the real Anna Teresa. In my mind, she had big shoes to fill with that day. You know, grandma was. There she’d be. Yeah, grandma would be. She was tough and played games. She stole her mind. Kind of sounds familiar, huh? Really? Sounds familiar. When you stayed, I don’t know what Anna’s doing right now. All I’m sure Anna’s doing. That’ll be Mike. See, mom. Andy. All of them. And I’m sure they’re all there to welcome you. But I also know that there’s a lot of love that’s in here and shared throughout this room right now. So I want to thank all of you for coming. She was special. And she went through a lot. And she loved her two sons. And she loved her husband. And those grandbabies, they were all full of love. So please, thank you for coming. But again, there’s a hole in our hearts. We already had one. Now there’s another one. But again, this is probably, Steve would probably tell you, along with It’s A Wonderful World, there was another song that said, Melvin, that we listened to almost every day. And that was Ramblin’ Rose<\/a>. So I know Mama’s with it. And she’s a good hit. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} Someone else. Stand up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} She would love to cry. First of all, she’d be yelling at all of us and telling us not to cry anymore. Well, it’s a funny story. Eight months pregnant from a kiddo over here. We were in Tennessee watching Stephen ride in holes. Then we went to visit Ruby Falls, and we were walking into the mountain, and I thought I went into labor. And she told me over and over and over again, she should not have this child with Tennessee before her wedding night. That’s a little funny story because she’d want laughing. She wouldn’t want us all sitting here blubbering like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} Was he born in your wedding night? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} It wouldn’t have hurt him then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} Someone back here was going to say something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} I just wanted to say, my name’s Phoebe. I’ve known Anna for a long time. We used to take our, my daughters would take her boys and we’d go camping out in Fine Creek. We’d go down to Six Flags. Enjoyed our time over there. Loved the rollercoaster except for this one. She’d never get back on one. Just go to Myrtle Beach. We had lots of fun. It was thick and thin. I loved her dearly. I couldn’t miss it. I loved watching her boys grow up. And when they were little, now I had to look up at them. I know she’s going to be working over there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} We’ll always have those dinners. And we build memories while we are living. That’s how we can leave people. When we leave, it’s all just memories. Someone else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} I’m not going to say I’m not ugly. But I’m Steve, the other brother that’s here today. Of the many she had and the big family that she had. And her and I had quite a couple things in common. Every third child was left-handed on our family. I was her first brother. The sixth child, she was left-handed. Anna was the ninth. And she was left-handed as well. Another unusual thing is Anna had two sons. And I had five daughters. And she loves kids. And I’m sure she’ll be smiling down on them on the desk for all of them as well as everybody here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} Thank you. Someone else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} I’m Lisa, and I’m good at math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} You’re a little girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} I am Anna’s heart. Donnie is her other half. Her other soul. I got to spend quite a bit of time with her. In fact, while she was going through the last month, I would see if she was OK while her and Donnie were sleeping. And Donnie, I guess, and Anna gave me the nickname of the little stalker. And there were times that Anna and I would talk, and I’m sure quite a few of you. I know a lot of secrets. So watch out. Now, Anna said a lot of positive things. She always had something positive to say about me. When it came to her family, which everybody was part of this family, she loved, and she loved hard. She loved so much when it came to our daddy. We got blessed when we got our daddy. We had a biological one, but we had a daddy. And we were giving that daddy, and he brought us three children. And then along with his ex-wife, we brought in another one. So that brought 13. And then that whole time, we never saw a step. That wasn’t the way. But Anna loved each one differently and the same. She’s fought like a guy, but she loved with the biggest heart. She had her bubbas. She had her bubbies. But she always had my heart. When she came home, she was my baby. When she left, she was my baby. You never have a family like that. You hold on to them. Let go of the heartaches. Let go of all the hurt. Remember, you only get one family. No matter what, you can’t take back the hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{voice} Thank you. Anyone else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I think we have another song. And it’s called\u2026 Excuse me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Sarah McLachlan \u201cAngel\u201d<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray
Our dear Heavenly Father
And his journey has ended on this earth
We are left behind
To help us to be better people
Because we have known him
Help us to reach out
Give other people memories
Help us to be an instrument of your love
That others may know of you
God, and direct us in all our life
That when our journey comes to an end
There will be kind words for us
There will be words of hope and peace
And so as we end this memorial service
And as we go forth
May we know that the light of God surrounds us
The love of God withholds you
The power of God protects you
The presence of God watch over you
Wherever you are God is And all is well
Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 22, 2018 I attended the funeral my Aunt Anna at The Grove Church [7343 Carolina Boulevard, Clyde, NC], an old little church in a cemetery. I made the 12 hour drive myself direct, making it just in-time to be present for the entirety of the ceremony. I felt it relevant to record it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heartbreak","category-love","category-obituary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2524,"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unliterate.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}