Our family created this online remembrance of my mom, Bunny Reeves, to share some insights into her life with those who weren't able to attend the memorial gathering, and give others a glimpse into her long and storied life.

This retrospective is presented in four parts: the written text of the talk I gave at the memorial gathering, a photo gallery of Bunny's life, a thirty minute audio clip of testimonials given by acquaintances at the memorial, as well as a moving tribute written by Bunny's best friend Cathy Bateman, and finally a link to her obituary in the December 1st Burlington Free Press. Three of her original oil paintings serve as background for the title above.

Thank you,
Craig

I would like to give a condensed narrative of my mom’s life as I knew it from her birth on April 26th 1926 until her passing away on November 29th 2014. Most people at this gathering knew her in the last quarter of her life after she moved to Vermont, but as with most people that prevail through life’s many challenges, the first three quarters of her life were populated with rich stories of her persistence and reinvention.

I’ll have to preface this talk by acknowledging that I wasn’t around for her first twenty years so I’ll have to use some intuition and hearsay only slightly tainted by facts. Please don’t run to your iPads for any confirmation!

Bunny was born the second youngest of four siblings (two sisters and a younger brother) on a farm in Holly NY, part way between Rochester and Buffalo. By all accounts it was a good beginning with the family pulling together, making a farm work. As the depression bore down, times became tighter and stresses tore the family apart. Bunny’s mom left and there was little other choice than for her dad to find foster homes for the children. Thus began a decade-long succession of foster homes. Her last was a farm where she was, for a few years, united with her brother. That foster family ultimately provided the New York City contact for her profession, photographic modeling. She also maintained a friendship with that host family for the next 70 years.

Modeling in New York was an eye-opening introduction to city life to an 18-year-old, and it provided her the professional groundwork she needed to expand upon later.

After returning to live in the Rochester area near the end of the war Bunny and my dad, Smokey, found each other as more than passable companions and got married in 1946. It was after much deliberation and hemming and hawing that the two of them decided ‘to try our luck with a baby’.

As a young family, the threesome grew, evolved and made room for each other in the comfortable GI bungalow on Falstaff Rd. in Rochester for the next 18 years. The folks did all the obligatory chores bringing up a young man in this world, but also found time to develop various talents and make lasting friends. It was during this time that Bunny’s modeling career got into gear, working with the Eastman Kodak Co. Her artistic appetite for balance and color led her to start painting in the late fifties. Eventually she took professional lessons and produced numbers of beautiful creations on her own.

Well, it sounds like the second twenty years have slipped away in this narrative, and as I have mentioned Bunny’s life followed a 20-year pattern somewhat. Time to switch gears. While remaining close to my dad, she developed ideas about ‘homesteading’ by herself in the woods. True to form she commenced on this project on a small piece of isolated property near the Finger Lakes, south of Rochester and lived there for over 10 years. I did say isolated, but not inaccessible when the occasion demanded. Many people would venture there through the years for solitude, piece of mind, and dinner parties. As she said many times, that land was her church. She would go out in the woods and just sit for long times observing nature, listening to the quiet, or walking her mutts, who would usually chase away the solitude.

Rochester winters are long and deep and the call of the South had a certain allure with Bunny. First it started out with a trip to the Bahamas, which got her primed up for an actual move somewhere south. While visiting the Bahamas many times in the early seventies, she became involved with the families and culture of Staniel Cay, becoming a godmother to one of the families’ children. Lasting friendships were forged and eventually led to New York visits by some of the islanders (seeing their first snow). It seemed in retrospect that maybe a place halfway between the tropics and the snowy North would offer a good compromise. As it happened, she decided, with no knowledge of the area or not knowing a soul there, to move to Charlotte NC to live. After a short time she made herself a comfortable abode and found friends to share time with. One of her closest friendships to this day is a result of this move.

In 1989 when Smokey was gravely ill in New York, Bunny came north to take care of him in his last weeks. Her actions showed to anyone who wanted to look, “This is love”. Bunny’s last move was not only back to the cold north but she decided to settle in northern Vermont for a new start and be near our family. Thus began an odyssey of living in Vermont that was to take her through to the end of her life. Before that last step… she had a lot of living to do.

She met Bob Orth at Breakers, a music and party bar on the Burlington waterfront. From there on, it was a hold–on-tight whirlwind 20-year partnership. One of Bob’s favorite pastimes (besides fishing) was traveling, and they visited some distant corners of the earth. It was a relationship of mutual benefit unfortunately shortened by Bob’s passing away in 2010. Bunny had then already been in the sphere of Alzheimer’s disease for several years and struggled with it for four more years.

When Bob passed away we tried to care for her in their home, but found those challenges to be very steep. This initiated Bunny’s fortuitous relationship with the Converse Home. The care she that she got there as she progressed through her disease gave her and us an extra lease on life. The staff and administration helped maintain her buoyant character and sense of humor in a most loving way. No one could want for more. My mom will be missed in this world, but she had a great run and we are fortunate to have been able to experience her in our lives. She lived well, she loved well, and she was well loved. May she rest in peace.

Thank you for coming to share some stories of my mother’s life. Craig, Bonnie, and Alex