Tag Archives: funeral

Photo-A-Day

Celebrating Grandma’s Playful Spirit

playful spirit
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01555

Today was the wake and funeral for Grandma Bennett. We drove down to Harwich for the wake and got into a ton of traffic at the Sagamore bridge. I had the video tribute with me and was getting antsy that we were not going to make it for the entire wake. Luckily I did not have to worry, we got there when we got there and I was able to get the video playing right away. It was not playing in the room where people were paying respects and so most of my aunts and my parents didn’t even get to see it. Luckily I had it all saved on Google so I could send them the link to the video later.

The wake was lovely and most of my cousins were there. A couple who were on the West Coast could not make it but I am glad that they made the trip out a little while back to see Grandma one last time. Otherwise we were all there.

The funeral was very nice and Eva did one of the readings. MY Dad did the eulogy which was very well done. My Aunt Cathy even took her flute out to play one of the hymns. Grandma loved music and every Christmas would come with a big box of instruments so the kids could do Christmas Carols.

Many wonderful stories were shared about Grandma Bennett at the funeral and at the collation afterwards. Andy ate their weight in meatballs because no one stopped them. To say that their tummy was a bit full would be a understatement. We stayed in Falmouth with my parents overnight. I don’t think any of us wanted to go back into that bridge traffic again.

Family, LEGO, Photo-A-Day

Cousins?

cousins
Photo-A-Day #4539

This may be a weird photo for what happened today but I didn’t think that anything from earlier in the day would have been appropriate. These are a couple of LEGO sets that I have. the smaller one is a LEGO creator set that I saw and picked up because the little robot looks like it would be fun to use for a stop motion. The larger robot is Vernie from Boost. This is a robot that you can program to do a whole bunch of things. Why did I shoot these two. Well, it was a long day and I thought of it in the last minutes of the night.

Today was Allison’s grandfather’s funeral. Grandpa Bob passed away earlier this week and today was the funeral, burial and convocation. We were all pretty wiped out. Last night I let the kids stay up way too late because I had taken them home from the wake early. I got them some pizza and then I took them to the pool so they could play with their cousins. Eva took a shower and I helped Andrew with his. I also let them watch some Disney Channel and we all lost track of the time. Allison stayed at the funeral home and then went to dinner with her parents. The kids were asleep by the time she returned to the hotel room. We slept fitfully and were not well rested this morning.

We had to be at the church by 8:30am. I was a pallbearer and Allison was a reader. We must have been on our game this morning because we were 45 minute early.

The mass was celebrated by Allison’s uncle, Fr. Tom. He also con-celebrated our wedding. He did a very nice homily. At the mass Andrew nearly had his first communion. He’s two years away from that. That happens in second grade. Allison, the kids and I were all seated in different places in the church. I had to sit with the pallbearers across the aisle from Allison. she sat on one end because she did a reading. the kids sat with their cousins. they don’t normally go to church and so they don’t go up for communion. Andrew has been going to church with us his whole life and he walks up when it is time for communion. However, he crossed his arms in front of him and places his hands on the opposite shoulders so that the priest knows that he is not receiving and that he gets a little blessing. He is normally in front of Eva but this time was behind her. This time he did not cross his arms but put his hands up. Why? I do not know. Poor Uncle Fr. Tom, he was panicked. He looked for Allison, and didn’t catch her eye. So he called to Eva as she walked away and asked her. She told him that he did not receive so Andrew got his blessing and went back to his seat. He then proceeded to cry. Today was hard.

Both kids were very upset. Eva went through tissue after tissue while Andrew acted out in different ways but also asked Allison and I some very tough questions. The he made a statement to us before we entered the cemetery.

Now, when you think that your kids are not listening you find out that they are and just how much they are listening because this was something that only a kid would come up with. Andrew said to us, “I don’t think that Grandpa Bob liked God. they said that he liked God but I don’t think he did.” Allison asked him why he thought that and he told us. “Because the priest said that if you love God then you will live forever and Grandpa Bob did not live forever.” He’s a deep kid. He’s picks up on everything even if you think he is not listening.

After the ceremony was the reception. All the kids got along really well with each other. Marcia got them all coloring pads and colored pencils. They had a great time coloring and then playing together. We heard some nice stories about Grandpa Bob and then came home to crash. We were all tired so we had popcorn for dinner and watched the Peanuts movie, only thing we could agree on.

I did try and get one photo at the convocation of the kids playing together but they moved out of the perfect position the moment I tried to take the shot.