As it turns out, the little red wagon featured on the front page last week led us to a very different ending and a story that is a testament to the world in which we now live.
Moreover, it illustrates how much refreshing generosity still exists.
According to Betsy Hutchinson, the granddaughter of the woman who passed away, the little red wagon had been placed on the porch of her mother, Susan Ansorge, in Los Alamitos.
That’s because Susan’s mom, and Betsy’s grandmother, Doris Ryder, had passed away March 22.
“I am pregnant and home with young children,” said Hutchinson, and therefore only able to offer limited help,” she said.
Although Ryder did not pass away from COVID-19, she died after the pandemic set in and communities had been locked down.
Quite tragically, Ryder’s husband, Dr. Richard Ryder, had passed away in the pre-coronavirus world exactly one month earlier.
Dr. Ryder had been a well-respected Long Beach physician, and Doris, a longtime school teacher in the California school system. After 60 beautiful years of marriage, and even more years serving the community, they passed away exactly 30 days apart. They left behind three daughters, eight grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren.
Now, however, they were caught in a pandemic. Faced with a most solemn event, arrangements that seemed routine just 30 days ago now became a logistical nightmare. .
After making arrangements at Bethany Lutheran in Lakewood, they put the little red wagon out front and Betsy sent out a post announcing the family did not want to delay the funeral. “Tomorrow, we are still proceeding,” she said, asking neighbors flowers they would be “willing to donate for her burial.”
Flower by flower, plant by plant, neighbors began filling up the little red wagon and dropping flower arrangements on porch.
“Neither of my grandparents passed away due to COVID-19,” said Hutchinson, but the community reaction in a coronavirus world was the best testament her grandparents could have ever received.
“There are so many people affected by this and they are making sacrifices to save the lives of so many,” she said.
When Doris was laid to rest, attendees say mourners pulled up to the church, much like a drive-in theater back in the day. Hutchinson said the pastor came out with a portable megaphone and “shouted” a few lines to the mourners, all parked with windows rolled down.
Carson Denyer, the first chair trumpet player for the Los Alamitos High jazz band, stepped out to play amazing grace, then the mourners waited for the Forest Lawn personnel as they eventually proceeded to the cemetery.
Karen Denyer, a family friend and Carson’s mom, said her son played taps at the gravesite as Doris was laid to rest beside her husband of 60 years, with friends and family paying final respects sitting in their vehicles near the gravesite.
“Please take the life lessons my grandparents passed to me and do your best to absorb them into your lives,” said Hutchison. “Always show kindness, be grateful, give generously, truly love and love as much as you can,” she adds.
“Put your family above all, love and care for your country, never forget how to laugh, never stop learning regardless of your age, and have faith,” she added.
“Our world, country and community has changed.. regardless of your beliefs. My grandfather was a soldier and saw war, and today we, the people, are at war with something much different. Everyone should reflect on how something so small can make a big difference in the lives of one another, said Hutchison.
At heart, the flowers donated spoke to something a larger issue..
“Flowers are such a small thing on the greater scale of what is going on, and for those of you that dropped off flowers, I am beyond and sincerely grateful,” said Hutchison. “It’s such a feeling one gets when friends, neighbors, and strangers are able to do such a little thing for someone else… to be able to touch a life in such a way. “Words cannot describe the feeling, I, or my family, has for your kindness. Thank you. We are doing this all together because we are ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.”
Seems like the little red wagon was filled with much more than flowers after all.