Celebrating Grammy

Yesterday, we had Grammy's memorial service. Everything came together well. Friday night, we had a family gathering at my grandfather's house to start the weekend. Emmeliese decided to stay up until 1 in the morning on Saturday, and I ended up being awake until about 3 a.m. I was worried going into yesterday morning, but the whole day ended up being lovely. The visitation was packed. We ended up having to delay the service about 20 minutes to get everyone through the line. The service was very nice. I did the eulogy and it went well. It was incomplete, of course, but since it is rather impossible to sum up an 84-year old saint in 15 minutes, that was ok. Grammy had planned the service itself, had chosen the scriptures and the music and had even written out what she wanted on the bulletin. It was very nice -- very simple and elegant, I thought. Two prayers, two readings, three hymns, and the eulogy. Lovely.

The church had a sorority who had reserved the fellowship hall, so the we weren't able to have the funeral lunch there. We ended up in a much smaller room, that, frankly, I was worried about pre-service. It ended up being perfect. The luncheon was wonderful and my aunt's wonderful friend brought beautiful centerpieces for the table that were just perfect. Folks crowded in the room, sat on couches and radiators, ate and chatted. It was a great mix of formal/ casual that Grammy would have loved.

After the funeral, we came back and everyone in this family took 2 1/2 hour naps. We needed them so badly that we didn't mind sleeping through the 60-degree beautiful day outside. When we got up, we went out to Gramps' for another family dinner. My uncle and cousins set off fireworks in Grammy's memory and we hung out with dad's three cousins, sons of Grammy's sister, who came all the way from California to be part of the remembrance. It was great, too.

And when we got home, Emmeliese and I went to sleep almost immediately. Dennis was not so fortunate, but he eventually got to bed around midnight. Emmeliese was fussy a lot last night and I think Dennis ended up taking care of her a lot, since I got a lot of sleep. The kiddos let us sleep in a bit this morning, but our big plan for today is threefold -- 1. Rest 2. Pickup the messes around the house 3. Do some laundry. And if we don't get to numbers 2 and 3, it will be ok.