grandpas memorial
was great. it was saturday, about 90 degrees outside, very stuffy inside the church.
lots of people showed up. some I hadn't seen in years. some people in our family stood up and spoke. my aunt and my sister had written theirs down and did a very good job. I was very impressed with my sisters, it almost sounded professional. but in a good way. she talked of many things yet still made it succinct. she didn't ramble or go off topic or talk too long. she talked about her first memory of him was when she was eating a watermelon and he told her not to swallow any seeds or a watermelon would grow in her stomach. of course, she ended up swallowing a few and got freaked out and thought she would die and grandma got upset at grandpa for making things up and scaring her. she even impersonated grandma saying it too. she talked of how he always loved to sing, to others or just by himself, and how, a few weeks before he died she was on a bus with lots of students and several boys started singing one of grandpas favorite songs---"show me the way to go home" which is an old song that most young poeple don't know.........and so the whole bus trip she kept thinking about him. (the song goes, "show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed. well I had a little drink about an hour ago and it went right through my head....ect)
and then she segued that to saying how he IS home now, with the lord, ect.......said it very eloquently and nicely.
we had a reception afterwards and my aunt had a powerpoint made of tons of photos of grandpa set to music. "they can't take that away from me" by sinatra and then "unforgetable" by nat king cole.........it was wonderful. even though I had already seen it, I still got teary and almost cried (I had to try hard not to)
some of the pictures were just "eh" but some were so good and some so cute. there were two of me that I had never seen before which was cool. one was me and grandpa overlooking Mt St Hlens or else Rainier, but we were at Mt St Helens. I remember the trip well. it was suuuuuppper super hot out and my aunts car was tiny and without air conditioning. we were miserable and crammed in the back with no air. at one point we stopped somewhere up the mountain and got a big box of ice cream sandwiches and ate them all in an effort to feel cooler. it didn't work. and then afterwards we stopped off for hamburgers at a local joint and they tasted soooo good because of how hungry we were.
I was about 9 and I'm all skinny and tan and have stupid outfit on.
the other picture I hadn't seen was me as a baby, bald with blue eyes (my eyes aren't blue anymore) and my grandpa is holding me but sticking me outwards as if to show me to someone (the camera?) and has this huge smile/laugh on his face like he's super happy. it was without any doubt the happiest he looked in any of the photos shown. he was never usually that expressive in photos. it was a sweet picture.
my mom and I stayed up until 3 am a few days earlier, working on making display boards of photos for the memorial. they turned out nicely. my aunt made captions for them and my mom and I arranged all the pictures. you wouldn't think it would take that long, but my mom and I had to go through quite a few first..........and trying to fit them all on two boards was kinda hard. we found really old photos of his parents too that we included and then we included photos of him as a baby. (so pictures that were 92 years old and some that were almost 100 years old!
we found one of my grandpa wearing clothing from the turn of the 20th century, complete with an old buggy car and he looked so handsome and different that I didn't think it was him! I couldn't believe how attractive and smart he looked. (in terms of dressing style)
after the memorial we came back to grandmas to hang out and several hours later my sister came back (we didn't know where she and her boyfriend had gone)
she was crying a lot.
she said she and her boyfriend had broken up (they went out for over 2 years)
this happened right when we were going out the door.
I went into the bathroom with her and sat a long time just letting her cry. eventually she started talking......she told me so many things. she was so honest and vulnerable. I really feel for her. its a complicated issue. she was the one that ended it. for reasons that are very noble but....well, overall it sounds like it needed to be done, just......its complicated I guess. I'll leave it at that.
lots of people showed up. some I hadn't seen in years. some people in our family stood up and spoke. my aunt and my sister had written theirs down and did a very good job. I was very impressed with my sisters, it almost sounded professional. but in a good way. she talked of many things yet still made it succinct. she didn't ramble or go off topic or talk too long. she talked about her first memory of him was when she was eating a watermelon and he told her not to swallow any seeds or a watermelon would grow in her stomach. of course, she ended up swallowing a few and got freaked out and thought she would die and grandma got upset at grandpa for making things up and scaring her. she even impersonated grandma saying it too. she talked of how he always loved to sing, to others or just by himself, and how, a few weeks before he died she was on a bus with lots of students and several boys started singing one of grandpas favorite songs---"show me the way to go home" which is an old song that most young poeple don't know.........and so the whole bus trip she kept thinking about him. (the song goes, "show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed. well I had a little drink about an hour ago and it went right through my head....ect)
and then she segued that to saying how he IS home now, with the lord, ect.......said it very eloquently and nicely.
we had a reception afterwards and my aunt had a powerpoint made of tons of photos of grandpa set to music. "they can't take that away from me" by sinatra and then "unforgetable" by nat king cole.........it was wonderful. even though I had already seen it, I still got teary and almost cried (I had to try hard not to)
some of the pictures were just "eh" but some were so good and some so cute. there were two of me that I had never seen before which was cool. one was me and grandpa overlooking Mt St Hlens or else Rainier, but we were at Mt St Helens. I remember the trip well. it was suuuuuppper super hot out and my aunts car was tiny and without air conditioning. we were miserable and crammed in the back with no air. at one point we stopped somewhere up the mountain and got a big box of ice cream sandwiches and ate them all in an effort to feel cooler. it didn't work. and then afterwards we stopped off for hamburgers at a local joint and they tasted soooo good because of how hungry we were.
I was about 9 and I'm all skinny and tan and have stupid outfit on.
the other picture I hadn't seen was me as a baby, bald with blue eyes (my eyes aren't blue anymore) and my grandpa is holding me but sticking me outwards as if to show me to someone (the camera?) and has this huge smile/laugh on his face like he's super happy. it was without any doubt the happiest he looked in any of the photos shown. he was never usually that expressive in photos. it was a sweet picture.
my mom and I stayed up until 3 am a few days earlier, working on making display boards of photos for the memorial. they turned out nicely. my aunt made captions for them and my mom and I arranged all the pictures. you wouldn't think it would take that long, but my mom and I had to go through quite a few first..........and trying to fit them all on two boards was kinda hard. we found really old photos of his parents too that we included and then we included photos of him as a baby. (so pictures that were 92 years old and some that were almost 100 years old!
we found one of my grandpa wearing clothing from the turn of the 20th century, complete with an old buggy car and he looked so handsome and different that I didn't think it was him! I couldn't believe how attractive and smart he looked. (in terms of dressing style)
after the memorial we came back to grandmas to hang out and several hours later my sister came back (we didn't know where she and her boyfriend had gone)
she was crying a lot.
she said she and her boyfriend had broken up (they went out for over 2 years)
this happened right when we were going out the door.
I went into the bathroom with her and sat a long time just letting her cry. eventually she started talking......she told me so many things. she was so honest and vulnerable. I really feel for her. its a complicated issue. she was the one that ended it. for reasons that are very noble but....well, overall it sounds like it needed to be done, just......its complicated I guess. I'll leave it at that.