Indiana Trip Part Two

The Viewing

Sunday, January 14th, was the viewing. Again, mixed emotions. Meeting more family and remembering Grandma was nice. There were pictures of Grandma and Grandpa all around. I really enjoyed seeing many of these pictures for the first time. Happy, family memories. I also felt moments of pride in being their Granddaughter as I read about the many different activities they were involved with over the years. My Grandparents were both amazing people.

Seeing my Grandma in the casket was hard. My brother, sisters, and I all went up together. I was glad for their support. Grandma looked so good. She just looked like she was asleep. I almost kept expecting her to open her eyes or move at any moment.

The Funeral

Monday was the funeral. This day was the hardest of all. The final goodbyes; well at least for now on this earth. The message given by the preacher was very direct and reassuring. As the service was ending, everyone left the room by walking by Grandma one last time. This was the most difficult moment of all for me, I think. Then came the long drive to the cemetery (about half an hour away). I was very touched (just like I was at my Grandpa’s funeral) at the politeness and showing of respect of the many cars who would pull over for the funeral caravan as we passed by on the road. Such a small but touching act.

After the funeral and short service at the cemetery, everyone was invited to a dinner at the Hunt Club.

More Family Visits

My Uncle Larry (on my Mom’s side) came to the viewing and he and his family came to the funeral. I was very appreciative of their support. I was also very glad to see them.

They invited us to go bowling later that evening. Since most of my family on my Dad’s side had already left or had other plans for the evening, it worked out well for us to go. It was a lot of fun and most of all, I was glad to get to know my two new cousins a little better. We had only met Uncle Larry’s new wife and daughters one other time, and they were quite shy then. But this time they weren’t shy at all and we had a lot of fun together. AnnaSandra and Diana are very sweet.

The Trip Home

Our flight home was pretty uneventful. No cancelled flights (our original flight to Indiana had been cancelled so we were re-routed on another airline). We flew Delta and they were small planes with only four seats across. Cindy and Karen had one side and I had two seats to myself since Mom wasn’t with us. Actually, on one of the flights it looked like I was going to have a seatmate. But as they were announcing the destination (Denver) he nervously asked me, “What did they say?” Sure enough, poor guy was on the wrong plane so he immediately got off and I had the seats to myself again.

Being gone for so long, I was really anxious to see Greg and Adrianna again. Adrianna didn’t say much at first when she saw me. Maybe she was overwhelmed by many kisses I was plastering all over her sweet little face. But as we were driving away from the airport she pointed at me and whispered, “Mommy” while wearing a happy smile. Ah, it is good to be home.