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Funeral Sermon for Mammy Caroline Barr
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Caroline has known to me all my life.
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It was my privilege to see her out of hers.
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After my father’s death,
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to Mammy I came to represent the head of that family
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to which she had given a half century of fidelity and devotion.
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But the relationship between us never became that of master and servant.
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She still remained one of my earliest recollections,
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not only as a person,
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but as a fountain of authority over my conduct
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and of security for my physical welfare,
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and of active and constant affection and love.
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She was an active and constant percept for decent behaviour.
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From her I learned to tell the truth,
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to refrain from waste,
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to be considerate of the weak and respectful to age,
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I saw fidelity to a family which was not hers,
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devotion and love for people she had not borne.
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She was born in bondage
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and with a dark skin and most of her early maturity
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she was passed in a dark and tragic time
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for the land of her birth.
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She went through vicissitudes which she had not caused;
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she assumed cares and grieves
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which were not even her cares and grieves.
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She was paid wages for this,
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but pay is still just money.
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And she never received very much of that,
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so that she never laid up anything of this world’s goods.
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Yet she accepted that too, without cavil or calculation or complaint,
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so that by that very failure she earned the gratitude
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and affection of the family she had given the fidelity and devotion upon,
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and gained the grief and regret of the aliens who loved and lost her.
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She was born and lived and served,
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and died and now is mourned;
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if there is a heaven, she has gone there.