Miriam Clements Shepherd

– On Friday December 17, 2021, during the third week of Advent, the Lord God in his love and mercy gathered to himself Miriam Clements (Mimi) Shepherd one month shy of her 90th birthday. She was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-nine years, Richard Shepherd, Jr., and her great-granddaughter, India Avaline Boye. She is survived by her four children: David R. (Cherie) Shepherd, Ron C. (Alice) Shepherd, Diane L. (Roger) Cooksey, and Sherri S. Lakoff, as well as thirteen grandchildren, twenty-one great-grandchildren (with one on the way), several grand-dogs, and numerous beloved cousins in Robertson County, Tennessee and in North Carolina.

Mimi leaves a legacy as the benevolent matriarch of a large, sprawling, and ever-growing family whom she loved and kept up with through many visits, phone calls, hand-written notes, birthday cards, and gifts. With the help of her long-time caregiver Cathy Black, she got the final batch of her Christmas cards written, stuffed with their monetary gifts, and mailed just hours before her passing, thinking of others right up until the end.

Her family greatly misses her presence here at Christmastide, along with all the thoughtful ways she made Christmas fun for the families making up her flock, not the least of which is her addictive blend of Chex Mix. She will also be missed by the countless number of charities and product catalogers who fill her mailbox daily with their funding appeals and merchandise promotions. She gave to charities large and small, and she never saw a catalog she didn’t like and love looking through to see if she might find the perfect gift for someone. Generosity was her spiritual gift.

She was movie-star beautiful on the outside and even lovelier on the inside. She had a sweet spirit but could get a little testy with medical personnel and physical therapists. She was smart, business-savvy, and stubborn. She was kind, empathetic, possessed a healthy sense of humor, and was a lover of country music and The Young and the Restless, during which she could not be disturbed. If you ever visited her, there is a Polaroid picture of you with your name and the date documenting the visit and placed in one of the dozens of photo albums she stacked up on the dining room table.

These verses from Proverbs 31 are a fitting tribute for this lamb of God’s own fold:

Her children rise up and call her blessed;

“Many women have done noble deeds,

but you surpass them all!”

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting,

but a woman who fears the LORD will be praised.

Give her the reward of her labor,

and let her works praise her at the city gates.

Mimi was laid to rest on Wednesday December 22, 2021 after a requiem mass attended by family and close friends and officiated by the Rev. David R. Shepherd at Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home in Nashville.

Give rest, O Christ to your servant Mimi with your saints where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting. Receive her into the blessed rest of everlasting peace and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Woodlawn-Roesch-PattonFH.com for the SHEPHERD family.