Long Weekend

We left Saturday morning about 11:00. Dad & Mom drove the boys and I down to southern Illinois with them. There were so many family members already staying with aunts, uncles & cousins that Mom & Dad stayed with my other grandma and got the boys and I a hotel room in town.

The family wake was at 4:30, it was difficult for all of us. We went over to my aunt & uncles for a bite to eat, visited for an hour or so with my grandma at her home, then Dad took us back out to the hotel so the boys could kill a bit of energy in the pool playing.

It had been four hours in the car for them, another hour at the funeral home and then another couple of hours cooped up in the house with family. They were good but ready to blow. The swim did them good, a treat out of the vending machine and a soda, then cable t.v. cartoons to relax. We were asleep by 10 pm.

Sunday we slept in (7:30 am), had breakfast at the hotel and got ready for the funeral. It was back over to my aunts to have a quick bite of lunch and then get to the funeral home my 12:30 pm. We shook hands with a sea of people. It was wonderful to see that my grandmother had touched so many other lives the way she had touched mine.

The service was beautiful. A celebration of her life, not mourning our loss - we celebrated her going to her eternal home in heaven with the Lord.

My 10 year old son tucked his favorite watch and an "I love you" note in the casket with his great-grandma. My younger son, age 7, had a lot of questions about death.

Why was she cold? What happens to the blood when you die? How come she doesn't feel real Mommy? (HE chose to touch her hand after asking if it was alright.)

She's cold because the part of her that made her warm to hug went to heaven to be with Jesus. Your body needs the blood when it's alive, when you go to heaven, you don't need your body anymore so you don't need the blood. (He didn't ask where it went and I didn't offer.) She doesn't feel real anymore for the same reason she doesn't feel warm - the loving, warm part of her that we liked to hug went to heaven to be with Jesus. Not the best answers but he's 7, he doesn't need biological facts that would scare the crap out of him. It's confusing enough to deal with death for the first time.

The service at the cemetery was brief due to the -15 wind chill. We all held up fairly well most of the day. Mom broke down in the car before we left. She didn't want to put her mother into the cold frozen ground.

The ride home was quiet. I'm still in a little bit of shock, unable to cry too many tears.

Grandma had a great life, she witnessed the invention of so many things. She experienced the depths of poverty and hardship, she experienced the good life. She touched thousands of people along the way. She will be missed.