Well, we left on Friday morning about 6:15. We went to my grandma’s house. What do you say?? It was terrible what happened. She has such a support system though it is amazing, so much food was brought and so many flower arrangements. She is a trooper though. We went to the first viewing, it was from 2 pm to 4 pm. There were so many people though that we didn’t get out of there until 5. We than went to her house again and ate lunch and sort of relaxed until the next viewing which was from 7 to 9. We didn’t get out of there until 10:30 though. There must have been 1500 people go through. There were people that I haven’t seen in 15 years.
The whole time Kyra was so good. She is an amazing little girl. She was sort of a break for all these people with grieving hearts. She is so carefree and, well, cute. She was walking around all the people and dancing. She isn’t shy that is for sure.
Well, sleep was sort of hard that night. I think Adam slept the best of us. He however says he didn’t. I guess we took turns sleeping because he sure was snoring the umteen times that I was awake. Kyra slept okay, but she didn’t take a nap that day. She woke about 5 times during the night. I just kept thinking about grandma sleeping the next room over and how hard this must be for her. I think I thought about grandma more than I thought about grandpa that weekend. I would keep looking at her and wondering how she was doing it. She was so composed, so held together.
Here is a picture of grandma and Kyra on Saturday morning before the funeral.
We had the funeral in a church. It was basically like a church service. I have only been to one other actual funeral in my life. I have been to several viewings, but only one funeral and that was of my uncle Jim who died 14 years ago. I don’t remember his being so religious. This service was very very religious. When all the talking and praying were done we went via hay wagon with grandpa in his casket to the graveyard. I don’t know why, but riding with the casket and touching it during the trip was very moving to me. I will surely always remember that ride, my last one with grandpa. I wasn’t to sure on the idea prior to it being done, but it was very appropriate in this instance. It was very moving to me, more than any of the praying or talking.
I still was thinking of grandma though as she rode almost directly across the casket from me. She was smiling actually and talking to Nancy at her left. I don’t know what they were talking about but I was watching her smile and wondering what she was thinking behind it more than her conversation.
The funeral was over at about 12:30. We went back to the church though and they had food for us. I was starving I have no idea why, maybe it was the walk back from the cemetery, but the food was good. There were so many people there. We left the church at about 2:15 and went back to grandma’s house.
I played with Kyra chasing her around the dining room table on my knees for about 20 minutes before anyone else got there. It was my aunt Janice and Nancy that got there first. Than my mom and grandma came in. They brought all the flower arrangements that had live flowers in them that we could keep alive. The other ones either stayed at the church, at the graveyard, or went to a nursing home. They sorted out who gave what arrangement and were planning on sending Thank You’s. I brought one of the arrangements home with me. I hope I can keep it alive, but I don’t have all the much faith in myself.
At 4:30 we decided we would head home. It was pretty much over with there and we felt like we needed to go before we got to tired. The drive was smooth. Kyra was so tired that she slept all the way to Altoona where we stopped and ate dinner. We stayed stopped for about 45 minutes tried to keep Kyra on her toes with activity. It worked…I nursed her and she was back out for the remaining ride. We got home at 10:30 all very tired so we went straight to bed.
The car still isn’t unloaded, but it is 100 degrees outside right now and I will unload it tonight while it is cooler.
Well, that was not a vacation. It was necessary though and I am glad I was there.
Bye.