Funeral

Kevin and I drove up to Michigan on Friday night so we could attend my uncle Bill's funeral on Saturday morning.  We were originally planning to drive up early in the morning but there were threats of an ice storm so we went up early.

Kevin's mom kindly came over and spent about 24 hours with the kids.

The funeral was beautiful in its own way.  My aunt said that at the end, the only thing working well for my uncle was his pacemaker. He was so ready to go home, so ready.

It was a Lutheran funeral full of liturgy and hymns.  My dad gave a lovely eulogy.  Communion was served and I got confused about what to do. I've been to 3 Lutheran Churches now in my lifetime (attended 2 for some time) and each one did communion differently :-). Those Lutherans!  No really, it was lovely.

Funerals are strange things in some ways because we're all grieving a loss but we also see relatives and friends we've not seen in forever.  I met a friend of mine I'd not seen in more than 20 years. She used to attend the same church as I did back in my graduate school days, before Kevin and I were married.  She got married to a fine fellow and moved in ACROSS THE STREET from my aunt and uncle. Just one of those weird "it's a small world" things.  She and her family have been loyal friends to my aunt and uncle, and vice versa.

I got to see one brother, the one who lives in Chicago. The other lives in Hawaii so getting back for the funeral wasn't feasible.

After the funeral and lunch, Kevin and I went to visit another aunt and uncle who live in the Ann Arbor area. I used to live with them for the first couple of years of graduate school, but I haven't seen much of them in the last 20 years.  Kids and kids and more kids, and married life, and work, have not resulted in much traveling on our part.  It was wonderful to spend a couple of hours with them and my brother, who was there also.

Their house is gorgeous.  It is funny to me how different life is without small kids.  Our house must be practical, for our own sanity.  No figurines, so breakable objects at high level, and so on.  It was fun seeing the house and the changes they've made since I lived there, but I'm thankful I'm not trying to maintain that level of decorating with kids racing around like rhinos around here.

We got back late, after driving through a snowstorm.  The kids mostly did fine though there were things that didn't happen that should have.  Rose was pretty crabby.  She is very attached to me. I don't know if that is partly because she is the youngest and the "baby" of the family?  The other kids, by this time, had at least 1, usually 2, younger siblings!