The Funeral

First I have to make a correction to my last post. He would have been 90 on June 16 not 19., He was born in 1919, so I suppose that is where the 19 came from before.....So he passed away 2 days before his 90th birthday.

Lance got off early on Tuesday and then we headed for Guttenberg for the viewing. Saw so many people I hadn't seen in years, and lots of little people I had never even met. My grandfather had 31 great grandchildren! Can you believe that?!

The kids all ran and played and were all so excited to have so many cousins to play with. There was no fighting or tattling. They were all so good. Grandpa would have liked that all the kids were there and playing like that. Now, kids are kinda funny about funerals because, well, they don't truly get it. One little boy came up to his dad and said, "Hey Daddy! Did you know there was a dead man over there in that box?!" His father told him (probably for the 20th time) who it was, and he said, "Awww Man! And that was my favorite grandpa too!" Then ran off to play. Another kid said, "you know I really like funerals." (Insert horrified glare from his mother.) "I mean, not the dying people part, but they usually have some GREAT food!!" Then it was reported to me that Kristina just drilled one of my aunts on everything about the coffin. Then at the grave site, Kristina wanted to stay to watch them lower it into the ground.

Now, here is my child-like question.....What's with the box???? You know, the lock box in the coffin. You were supposed to write a little note or something to him and put it in the box. Um, why? He can't read them. And the box actually LOCKS! Why?! And who gets the key? Does he get the key? Why are we locking a box that will be in a box, and then in a volt, and then buried in the ground?

The couple of times I went to go look at Grandpa, I couldn't really connect. I mean, he looked like a manikin for one thing, but I also knew he wasn't in there anymore. It was just his earthly body, and HE had gone up to Heaven. I always have this issue at funerals. It is just very strange for me. I was very drawn to his hands though. They still really looked like his hands.

The hardest part of the funeral was when my cousin Lisa got up there to talk about memories of Grandpa. They were all funny stories but it was sad at the same time. All of the stories on the farm. We all had fond memories of the farm.

All of those kids were so good during the funeral. For the most part, they were all quiet. Jakob had the same enthusiasm for funerals as he does weddings. He slept through the whole thing. They were playing a hymn.....and by this time, the funeral was getting pretty long for the kids.....Kristina let out a very noisy yawn. You know, it was like the music was playing so softly and everyone is reflecting and sniffling etc, and then here's my kid with the most dramatic yawn.

I ended up singing "Amazing Grace" as that is what was requested. I sang it a-capello, and it went fine. Not my best vocals, but I didn't mess up and I got lots of compliments after, so hopefully I did my job ok. I was SUPER SUPER nervous!!! I mean, everyone's crying, and you just don't want to mess up because it is such a serious event.

Anyway, we had stayed the night at a hotel, but had gotten very little sleep due to late to bed, and then really early rising so we could go to this awesome restaurant in Dyersville for breakfast. It turned out we didn't have to get there so early as we got our food right away and then were done within a half hour. So we went to look at the Mississippi before heading to the funeral. When we got home yesterday afternoon, Lance and I just crashed!! It was a stressful couple of days.