Shelved this post
My Aunt Yolanda died August 22nd. Though she was 88 years old, she could have passed for 65. She'd had many heart surgeries over the years, including quintuple bypass in 1987. In the end, it was a brain aneurysm--sudden and painless. She was talking to her sister Alice on the phone, and said, "I feel dizzy... I need to lie down"...Aunt Alice heard the commotion in the background, Yol's grandson shouting "Memaw...what's wrong?" then calling 911 and my other cousins before someone hung up the phone.
One of the more tragic things about it was that a huge party had been planned for August 27th to celebrate Aunt Alice's 90th birthday--a party everyone from that side of family had been looking forward to because it wasn't a funeral (where we usually all see each other.)
August 27th turned out to be the day of the funeral instead. The one good thing was that everyone's schedule had been cleared for the party, so the wake, funeral, and "after party" were SRO.
The above paragraph was written a few weeks ago, I guess. In the meantime, our extended family has had another loss, this time a much younger person, age 52. Another wake, another funeral, another cemetery. My kids are getting way too good at this. They have 'funeral clothes' they can pick out in 5 minutes. They know what to say to the family, where to stand, when to hug and when to just listen.
One of the more tragic things about it was that a huge party had been planned for August 27th to celebrate Aunt Alice's 90th birthday--a party everyone from that side of family had been looking forward to because it wasn't a funeral (where we usually all see each other.)
August 27th turned out to be the day of the funeral instead. The one good thing was that everyone's schedule had been cleared for the party, so the wake, funeral, and "after party" were SRO.
The above paragraph was written a few weeks ago, I guess. In the meantime, our extended family has had another loss, this time a much younger person, age 52. Another wake, another funeral, another cemetery. My kids are getting way too good at this. They have 'funeral clothes' they can pick out in 5 minutes. They know what to say to the family, where to stand, when to hug and when to just listen.