3.18.2014

Headed home on the bus, I had nothing but time to think. My mother and baby brother had come up the day after Friday to help soften the blow of Granny’s passing. Now, I was headed home for her funeral.  Last time I was there she was in great spirits. She had recently celebrated Mardi Gras (had her beads and all) with the residents of the nursing home SHE requested we put her in. This was the same home my Papa stayed in while living with Alzheimer’s.  Granny visited faithfully and celebrated her 60th wedding anniversary there with him.  Papa also took his last breath there. As I write now I start to realize just how intentional Granny’s choices were…

I returned to the home that I had spent the previous eight years of my life with the best roommate ever. Everything in that house was and still to this day is very much Granny. Her thrift store bargains, half a dozen book shelves filled to the brim,  and several artifacts from her time sometimes made the house feel more like a museum. How could all of her be there, but not her…

The road to plan her homegoing celebration was taxing. We had a great deal of help from family and some great friends, but it was the close family that had to plan the details, or so we thought. As we discussed the layout for the services, we realized that Granny had really planned her own funeral. She had been telling us for many years that she wanted to be buried in her 50^th anniversary dress, didn’t want a lot of singing, and had in the past month given my cousin a couple options for the poem she wanted recited at her funeral… I wonder how long she was preparing for her exit…

Always smiling no matter the occassion!