Portion of Ingrid Hovick’s Ashes Scattered in her Former Home of Washington, D.C.

This is an addendum to an earlier post on this blog - A Tribute to a Great (in More Ways Than One) Aunt.

At the time of her death, Ingrid was living in Edmonds, Wash., where she had moved four years earlier from her longtime home of Washington, D.C. Ingrid had lived in Washington, D.C., for most of her life, for many decades, from the presidential administrations of FDR to George W. Bush, a remarkable span of history in the 20th century.

Following her death, Ingrid’s body was cremated, and her ashes were being kept in Seattle. But because she had spent most of her life in Washington, D.C., I, her great-nephew, and my wife, Sarah, had volunteered to take a portion of her ashes back to the city, where we now live, so part of Ingrid, at least, could be laid to rest in the city she loved so much.

On the night of Saturday, September 26, 2009, Sarah, our daughter Alexandria, Sarah’s mother Paula, who was in town visiting that week, and I gathered to scatter a small portion of Ingrid’s cremated remains on the National Mall. We recited a short liturgy from the service of burial/scattering of ashes from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s worship book, which included two Scripture readings – Psalm 23 (the beautiful language from the King James translation of the Bible) and Mark 7:24-37, the story that includes the account of Jesus healing the deaf man. I had chosen this Gospel reading as a reminder of how Jesus heals us and because of its relevance to Ingrid’s longtime hearing impediment.

The spot I chose for the scattering of Ingrid’s ashes was near the corner of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, just down the grand steps from the Lincoln Memorial, in view of that majestic monument as well as in view of the Washington Monument and near the Vietnam War Memorial, the World War II Memorial and other well-known sites of the capital. These are icons of the city and the nation, and I felt it was appropriate that part of Ingrid came to rest near places that exemplify the greatness of the city that Ingrid so dearly loved. Although it was raining steadily during the short service we held, the backdrop of the monuments lit up at night provided a dramatic backdrop to the occasion.

I later learned that Ingrid enjoyed taking first-time visitors to the city to the Lincoln Memorial at night on the first night of their visit. So my choice of location for scattering her ashes was appropriate but entirely arbitrary outside the reasoning I give above.

Also, my brother Andy had told me about a Chinese tradition in which a deceased person’s hearse brings the body by his/her former houses for one final visit. In a modification of this tradition, on our way to the Mall to scatter Ingrid’s ashes, we drove by her final two homes – two large apartment buildings on Connecticut Ave. And on our way back home, we drove by one of her earlier homes, the Chastleton apartment building on 16th St. NW, several blocks directly north of the White House.

Coincidentally, the day on which we scattered Ingrid’s ashes was the first day we officially began living in our new house, which we purchased in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was a day to mark endings – the coming to rest back in her beloved city for Ingrid – and a day of official beginnings – the establishment of a home for us in the same beloved city, a place I was choosing to live largely because of Ingrid.

As the service for the committing of ashes says:

In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to almighty God our sister Ingrid, and we commit her ashes to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The Lord bless her and keep her.
The Lord’s face shine on her with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon her with favor and give her peace.
Amen

Stephen Hovick Padre
September 2009