Three Weddings and a Funeral

Today, we said goodbye to my Dad. The funeral service was beautiful, and attended by hundreds of people. Honestly, most of it was kind of a blur for me, as there were so many people there, and a lot of them I had no idea who they were and they were hugging me and saying how sorry they were, etc. We had made a slide show of pictures of my dad, and gave out CD's of the last live concert that he had played. Pastor Carl, who was a good friend of my Dad's gave a beautiful message and then sang and played his guitar, which my Dad would have loved. My brother wrote my Dad a song, which we listened to a prerecorded performance of. I tried to get flower arrangements that included lilac, as I knew that was my Dad's favorite (he mentioned that his Mom used to have lots of lilac bushes around his childhood home), but they were out of season, so I got some Lilac scented candles and had them burning. We drove to Burlington Junction to bury my Dad next to his Parents and his brother. It was so hard to imagine leaving my Daddy there, but it was really a beautiful spot, surrounded by countryside, and very peaceful. We all placed roses on top of the coffin, red for my mom, yellow ones for me and Caleb, Matt and Andrea, and two pink ones for Loralie and Ada. I miss my Dad so much already, and know that the coming weeks are going to be even harder as we try to scrape by at work without our leader. We actually have three weddings this coming weekend, so we have to dive in with both feet.

Loralie has never gone more than a few days without seeing Boppa her whole life, so we were surprised that she didn't talk about him or ask about him for the first few days. Yesterday I was alone with her for a few minutes so I told her that Boppa had gone to live with Jesus in heaven, and that he wouldn't be able to come see us anymore. She said "ok", and hasn't really asked about him since. It makes me sad that she will forget him so easily, but I guess that is easier for her. I will make sure she knows what an awesome Grandpa she had, and how much he loved her.

Sorry this post is so depressing. Probably won't be the last downer, but it is how I process and vent, so feel free to stop reading if it bums you out.