Original subtitles

- [Funeral Director] Thank you all for joining us today

to celebrate the life of Brenda Amelia Arnaud.

Brenda was well loved.

She spent her adult life as a well-respected accountant

and dance instructor that so many of us knew and loved.

She lived to the age of 59 and left us too soon.

She is survived by three children, Shane, Morgan and James,

who is with us here today.

And will start the ceremony

with a few words and one of his mother's favorite songs.

James, will you come up and join us, please?

- [James] Thank you for coming.

Sorry.

- Do you have everything you need?

- Oh yeah no, it's fine I've got it.

- Okay, great.

- Thank you. Hey everybody.

Good morning.

Brenda was a free spirit.

She was a wonderful mother, she had three children.

My brother and my sister couldn't make it today,

but I've spoken to them on the phone

and she's a grandmother of seven grandkids.

Who loved her very much.

She was a certified public accountant

and she ran the dance academy in town until about 2009,

next to the old drugstore.

My mother

didn't believe in any of this.

Not that that's a bad thing, you know,

she didn't judge anybody or anything.

She just, anyway, she loved everybody

and cared for everybody and never put herself first,

her whole life I'm starting to think.

She, sorry, thank you everybody for coming.

Captain, Kev, Tony, we've got people here, Judy.

Thank you. It means a lot.

My mom was an extremely charitable woman.

She donated to my school once when I was a kid,

there was this girl in my grade named Kaitlin,

she had down syndrome or she had something, she used to,

she was, she was bitch this girl.

And she, I know, but she used to bite.

She used to bite kids a lot and I was terrified of her

and she would just haul off, she's a bit a teacher.

Anyway, my mom donated like $1,000 at school

because she wasn't allowed to play on the play structures,

it was too dangerous.

But my mom wanted her to be able to have,

so anyway they built her a little Playhouse

because my mom didn't like the idea of her being left out.

She did it anonymously. She didn't tell anybody about it.

And I don't have that in me, but it was her.

And...

I opened the door for somebody this morning and

I got angry that they didn't say "thanks".

But, sorry...

I had some stuff written down.

I had... when you're a kid and you think about stuff

you think about America

and the founding, Thomas Jefferson and all that.

when you're a kid you say, "yeah, these guys did all this",

it doesn't mean anything to you.

And then you grow up

and you realize that these guys were incredible.

And they were just people like us.

They lived, and they loved, and they,

you had a kid and

you grow up you think about your mom

and your dad and the stories that they used to tell you

when you were growing up of them being young.

And before I called her mom, she was "Brenda".

Sorry, um. I don't know if I can keep going.

- [Funeral Director] Keep going.

- Yeah? That's cool, I'm fine.

She was just so wonderful. And I gave her hell growing up.

We gave each other hell

and it gets to you when you get older.

And I'm one of the good guys now,

but I was just mean to her and

would lie to her and

I didn't know any better. And it's too late.

I tell my daughter sometimes, Hey,

never say anything mean to me, not for you.

Not for her sake.

I can, I'm a grown man,

but I would hate for her to have to look back.

Oh, I was just stupid. I was just so stupid.

I have, I'm a, I'm a dyslexic

and I never even think about it.

But when I was in school,

I had to listen to all these books on tape.

So it looks like the words are all jumbled up sometimes

when you're reading and I can do it.

I'm just not that fast.

And it was all through high school.

But when I went to school at LSU,

they didn't have anything like that for my textbooks.

And so my mom bought a little tape recorder.

She would read all things I had to read

so I could do well in school.

And that's all she really wanted

and I screwed that up.

I didn't say, Hey, thanks mom for doing that.

It means a lot, but she must've been up so late.

And it gets to you when you grow up, eats you alive.

I'm sorry. I'm so, any who.

My mom was a big fan of Bruce Springsteen,

loved Bruce Springsteen.

And she used to listen to them when she was younger.

And Bruce Springsteen meant leaving the small town

and going to do something with your life.

And she said that she wouldn't have left.

If she hadn't heard him, she loved him so much.

And she used to sing thunder road to me

when I was going to sleep.

And I, you know, I'm not a singer or dancer or anything,

but people said, it'd be a good idea

if I brought him anyway.

So I brought it in and I, yeah I brought it in.

So I'm going to sing it.

And yeah so I'm going to sing it.

Okay, here we go.

("Born To Run" blares then shuts off)

I had it working this morning. I promise.

(soft country music begins)

Okay. Sorry, typical.

My mom, would've heard this for the first time

when she was about 16 or 17 years old,

I played it on my iPod the first day I got my cruiser,

my mom and dad were in the back

and my dad danced around a little bit,

but my mom lit up she knew,

every single word of the song she.

♪ The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves ♪

♪ Like a vision ♪

♪ She dances across the porch as the radio plays ♪

♪ Roy Orbison singing for the lonely ♪

♪ Hey, that's me, and I want you only ♪

♪ Don't turn me home again ♪

♪ I just can't face myself alone again ♪

♪ Don't run back inside ♪

♪ Darling, you know just what I'm here for ♪

fuck

♪ So you're scared, and you're thinking ♪

♪ That maybe we ain't that young anymore ♪

♪ Show a little faith, there's magic in the night ♪

♪ You ain't a beauty, but, hey, you're alright ♪

♪ Oh, and that's alright with me ♪

♪ You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain ♪

♪ Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain ♪

♪ Waste your summer praying in vain ♪

♪ For a savior to rise from these streets ♪

♪ Well now, I'm no hero, that's understood ♪

♪ All the redemption I can offer, girl ♪

♪ Is beneath this dirty hood ♪

♪ With a chance to make it good somehow ♪

♪ Hey what else can we do now ♪

♪ Except roll down the window ♪

♪ And let the wind blow back your hair ♪

♪ Well the night's busting open ♪

♪ These two lanes will take us anywhere ♪

♪ We got one last chance to make it real ♪

♪ To trade in these wings on some wheels ♪

♪ Climb in back ♪

- I can't.

♪ Heaven's waiting down on the tracks ♪

- I'm gonna be sick. Okay.

♪ Oh-oh come take my hand ♪

♪ We're riding across the night to case the promised land ♪

♪ Oh-oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road ♪

♪ Lying out there like a killer in the sun ♪

♪ I know it's late, we can make it if we run ♪

♪ Oh, Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold ♪

♪ Thunder Road ♪

♪ Well I got this guitar, and I learned how to make it talk ♪

- Crystal, go sit back down with Mommy.

♪ And my car's out back ♪

- Crystal please go sit back down with Mommy.

♪ If you're ready to take that long walk ♪

- Crystal go sit.

♪ From your front porch to my front seat ♪

- Can somebody turn this off? Just unplug the whole thing.

♪ And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken ♪

♪ But tonight we'll ♪

(music shuts off)

- Oh, it's okay honey, daddy's just dancing.

Daddy's just dancing honey,

I wasn't thinking I'm so sorry honey.

- Would you like to sit down now.

- Do I have to leave?

- No, it's okay.

- Oh just back to my seat? Yeah, I can go back to my seat.

- Sure, okay.

- Can I, actually can I say goodbye real quick?

- Yes of course. Of course.

- Okay come here, that's okay.

Goodbye Mom.

I'm so sorry I fucked up everything up, I'm so sorry.

- You did great honey, you did great.

- No I got her, I got her.

- [Funeral Director] I think it's important

for all of us to remember that everyone mourns

in their own unique way.

So there's no right way. There's no wrong way.

I would like to introduce our organist Wendell James,

who will be playing some songs for us, Wendell?

- Crystal, come sit by me honey. Crystal come sit by me.

(somber organ music)