The Perfect Memorial for a Diehard Fan
When Elaine’s daughter, Lynne Arnold went to make the funeral arrangements at Mueller Memorial Funeral Home in White Bear Lake, she spotted the Twins urn, 12 inches tall and colored in blue, white, and baseball bat tan, which happened to be sitting on a table in the lobby.
“It was only out because it had just been delivered and I hadn’t had time to make room for it in our regular display,” recalls Mueller Memorial funeral director, Jessica Urban. It was fortunate it was there because the moment Lynne saw the Minnesota Twins themed urn she instantly thought, “This couldn’t be more perfect.”
Lynne’s mother Elaine was what you would call a couch-coach. From the Season Opener to (in the best years) October she would snuggle under her Twins blanket and yell so loudly at players and coaches that the neighbors could hear in detail why leaving runners in scoring position is basically a crime. She regularly swore never to watch again after the, “damn team didn’t win,” but sure enough, she’d be back under that Twins blanket the next night, pulling for Carew, Killebrew, Oliva, Molitor, Puckett, or Mauer, depending on the decade.
When it was time to lay Elaine to rest, it was an easy decision to choose an urn officially licensed by Major League Baseball and, of course, featuring the Minnesota Twins.
“It’s actually a very elegantly designed casket, and quite the icebreaker,” says Scott Mueller, owner of Mueller Memorial, “No other funeral home in the area has a Twins casket on display, but having it here and showing it to people makes joining a conversation about casket choices a little less daunting for them.”
The Twins’ Home Opener will be bittersweet for Lynne this year, but she does know that with the help of Mueller Memorial she was able to send off her mom in a way that celebrated who she was — a fan to the end.
