Silver Lining

Having a funeral is never fun, but the silver lining is that a lot of family gets together that normally doesn't.  With all of Nathan's siblings in the prime years of child-raising (or "the zombie years" as Nathan's mom calls them) we don't get to visit each other much.

 Which is very, very sad.  These cousins should get together more often!

Maddy, 8, really latched onto Vander and wanted to be a little mommy to him.  She got a coloring kit out of the car--a prize for them to use on their long car trip--and asked if she could give it to Vander.  Then she helped him color it.

I moved the kids around to open up some bedrooms for people to stay but between dog allergies and sick kids it worked out better for everyone to stay in a hotel.

Tiffany came from California with her four kids.  I think she deserves a medal for a ridiculously long road trip with a car full of sick kids and her husband at home!

Jared flew in from Texas.  Samantha stayed home with the kids.

 Missy also had sick kids, so five of them stayed home with Randy in Utah while Missy came with the baby.  Tara rode with her.

All of the siblings were together for the first time since 2008!

Vander and Titan hit it off again.  (They had become friends when we stayed at their house in January.)  I came across them lying like this and snapped a pic.

The funeral was Tuesday October 29th.  I put together a little video of pictures of Grammy that Nathan's mom and aunts had selected.  It was sweet, and went well with the song Tara found, "She's gonna fly."  It talks about how awful Alzheimer's is.

We went to the viewing in the RS room beforehand and our kids were pretty well behaved.  Vera's three daughters were there, as well as a large representation of grandkids, great-grandkids, and even a great-great grandchild.  I was impressed by how many of Vera's descendants felt it important enough to come for her funeral.  It seems like once someone gets up into their 90's they don't often have a big funeral, at least that's how it seems to me.

The service was nice and then we had a luncheon.  Nathan missed most of it because he had to get Jared back to the airport, but I'm glad he got that extra time with his brother.  We said goodbye to everyone, lastly to Nathan's mom, who was going back to Oregon for the graveside service and burial.

Click on the play button below to see the video I made.