Back home again

I really had to hit the ground running - I was gone Sunday through Wednesday and then I worked Thursday and Friday. Now I have a little bit of time to re-group but I also have to prepare a talk and a Sunday school lesson tomorrow (and catch up on groceries and laundry). It was fifty-one degrees in Alabama on Wednesday and minus eleven in Indiana on Thursday. Hmm, maybe I should have stayed.

I took a lot of pictures, mainly because I am the one person in the family who can be reliably counted on not to cry. (I'm not a horrible person, I swear. Even onions don't usually make me weep.) Grandaddy's funeral was really nice. I would describe it as more sad-bittersweet than sad-tragic, and when you really think about it, we should all be so lucky to be remembered like that. Emily, Catherine, Laura and I sang 'Amazing Grace' (reprised from Grandma's funeral three years ago - I think Mom just really likes to hear us sing) and we had some time to rehearse it in the hotel the night before, so I felt like we were able to do the song justice. Grandaddy was retired Navy, so he had the whole military funeral, which was neat. This is my favorite shot:

After they folded the flag they presented it to his widow (it's a long-ish story; she's not actually our grandmother, but they were married for 34 years and we all like her a lot) but later she gave it to Mom, which I thought was a really nice gesture. After the funeral we went back to the house (which is maybe a 3 minute drive from the cemetery and funeral home) and talked with all the family and friends. Grandaddy's church had sent a lot of food - fried okra, sweet potato pie, probably the most delicious cornbread I've ever put in my face-hole - and the Autaga County sheriff brought a ham. I had a really nice time chatting with my relatives before Emily and I had to hit the road again.

Here we are all in our fancy clothes:

Seven out of the eight grandkids were there (all except for Rob, who just got to Germany. Because he's in the Army. Grandaddy was okay with that; he was just relieved Rob's not a jarhead.) and two of the great-grandbabies. I just brought Amy, while Matt and the kids stayed home. It was really hard for Amy to absorb that much love and attention, because like all of my offspring, she's pretty shy and retiring. Although I'm a little concerned because I left home with a three-toothed (or tridentate - ha, I knew all that Latin would come in handy someday) baby but I returned home with a quadrident. So I think she might have been switched out of the hotel or something while I was sleeping.