a reflecting day

Today was Grandma's funeral.

We drove out on the most treacherous nasty roads, through the most beautiful hilly Wisconsin countryside, all the fields light pink and golden, snow coating the pines.

The sweet little church was filled with cousins and aunts and uncles.

Above is a picture from 25 years ago, and below one from just a couple years back.

 This was 1963, her with me on her lap, Pam on her mom's lap, our own mama in the back.  Pam has a lot more hair now.   Otherwise, none of us changed all that much during the years that have passed.

And here they are on their 50th Anniversary.  Beside them to the left are their own mothers.  On the other side are a sister of his and brother of hers.

Today was a long and difficult day.

On one hand we're just plain lucky to have had her.  On the other, it's quite crappy that people grow old and die.   When we were with her six weeks ago, eating popcorn and goofing around with the kids, it was pleasant and ordinary--didn't seem that she was at the end of her life, and yet she was.

This is an excerpt from something I wrote a long time ago, but here it fits today:


"...we are laying the foundation for loving, respectful, safe families to live in.  We want families where we all can grow together, where we can seek our potential and be ourselves, where generations overlap, so that we know for certain because we see it with our own eyes, that love is continuous, and extends backward and forward in time. It was a foundation underneath our lives before we were ever born and will continue flowing after we are gone." 

Ninety beautiful years of you, Grandma.   Lucky, lucky us.    love forever and always,  all of us