31 January 2010

Memories from the funeral

It's been almost two months since Grandpa's funeral. Since then Grandma had a birthday and life is moving on. I know I'm not the only one who thinks about how happy Grandpa must be now that he's not limited by the frailties of his age and condition.


I noted a few things during the funeral weekend that I wanted to remember later. Here they are:
  • Seeing mom and dad leave on the night before the funeral to go dress grandpa for burial. It's one of those things that no child ever wants to do, but the time will come for all of us to do it.

  • Holding Grandma's hand during our 3 or 4 minute chat before the funeral started.

  • Cannon being at Arby's when it was time for the cousin picture. (Turns out he went to Jack-In-The-Box, not Arby's. He brought me two tacos for 99 cents, so I felt bad for being the one who told the whole group that he'd gone to Arby's. But not bad enough to not eat the tacos.)

  • Uncle Clynn's smiling face during Cami's song.

  • During Clynn's talk, he remembered how Grandpa would tell him, "Son, let's go one more round" when they were nearing the end of a long day on the farm.

  • The smell of fresh mint growing at the grave site.

It was a funeral, but it was wonderful.

3 comments:

Allison said...

We went to 5 funerals last year and Grandpa's was by far my favorite. Maybe because I knew him best and loved him the most. I felt like it was a weekend of celebration for one tremendous man. It was perfect.

The mouse at the cousin party, however, is one memory from that weekend I wish had been different.

gramyflys said...

It was a weekend I will never forget. Thanks for bringing your whole family. It was a dandy celebration of an incredible life lived to the fullest.

Cali said...

Great post Joey. He was an amazing man.