I'm Back

This has been, without a doubt, one of the longest stretches of 48 hours I have ever endured. I'm finally back from my grandmother's funeral. I have a lot of thoughts concerning her death, the funeral, and the surrounding free-for-all that is going to ensue shortly (if it already hasn't).

I've already posted comments on what my grandmother meant to me. I won't rehash them now. But needless to say, I loved her. Very much. Both of my grandparents. They were such a large part of shaping who I am as a person. Even when my life took a turn that they didn't approve of, in the back of my mind I was always conscious of how my decisions would affect them and what they would have to say because of it.

The funeral went well (as well as a funeral can go, I guess). It was a closed casket funeral, which I think was more for my mother's sanity than anything else. She just lost her mother (I hope to hold up as well under the strain when my mother passes as she did this week) and I'm sure the last thing she wanted was over 200 people (or more...believe me when I say that it was standing room only at the church house...and this is a church that is so far back in the woods that I don't think any GPS system in the world could have found it) reminding her of that fact as they walked by for a final viewing. The prepared remarks that I read at the funeral were well received (I posted some of them here...although, as is my wont, I rewrote a large portion of it 30 minutes before I read it...and I also improvised on the fly, but I do that all the time too) but I personally felt that I could have written something...I don't know, better perhaps. More apropos. Still, it was nice to have old people that grew up with my grandmother come to me after the funeral and give me a hug and tell me that what I said was exactly what my grandmother would have wanted to have been said. (I relayed an anecdote about a tractor play set I wanted her to buy for me as a child to the audience...after the funeral, I was besieged with old women who kept telling me, "You forgot to mention the time you tried this to get what you wanted..." Let's just say that my grandparents spoiled me outrageously).

The free-for-all? I'm not going to go into it here...my standard response when prompted for my thoughts and opinions regarding the disposition of her estate came from one of my cousins, who I dearly love. The line she told me to say, and said herself several times, was "I'm just a grandchild." But needless to say that with any large estate there are those who feel that they need a big piece of the pie. Me? I got some very personal things of hers and I'm MORE than happy with that. I don't need her money or possessions because I know that I had my grandmother's love.

One humorous anecdote: Flowers absolutely FESTOONED the church from friends and family. But off to the side was a little bouquet from "Charlie's Fried Chicken". What is Charlie's? I don't know how geographically spread out they are (they could be like white castle who operate primarily in the Chicago area) but it is a fried chicken joint that both of my grandparents loved to eat at (indeed, I got my love of fried chicken livers from eating with them there...often). My grandmother LOVED Charlie's Chicken. And apparently, they loved her back. So much so, that they sent flowers to her funeral.