Grandpa's Funeral

Rees Family

The funeral this morning was very different than the last funeral I went to. Much less grief, and much more fond remembrance. I guess that's the difference between having someone die suddenly and expecting someone to die. I did briefly look at Grandpa today before closing the casket—he looked, quite honestly, somewhat unrecognizable. I'm still not comfortable thinking about it. What I remember most about the eulogy (and I guess in general over the last two days), is the way dad interacted with his siblings. I'd never seen that before. On one hand, he suddenly seemed so much wiser. It's like he assumed the mantle of leadership, being the first born son. On the other hand, it was very much like they were all kids again. I saw a lot of my siblings in the way they interacted. It was also interesting to hear people who had known dad's family growing up talk about those times, and about how much everyone had changed. It was also interesting to watch how all of dad's siblings, whether they were active in the church or not, seemed to return to their LDS roots to understand grandpa's death. In fact, I even seemed to notice this in my siblings. Although Amy seemed a little more upset than the rest of us. She didn't think we should be having so much fun at grandpa's funeral. The other interesting thing was that dad told a lot of grandpa's jokes. It was funny. It's just what grandpa would have wanted. It was amazing to see the turnout. One guy that really stood out to me was a guy Grandma and Grandpa had met a few years ago at a bus stop. He was kind of funny—seemed like he might have had a little bit of a mental handicap, but not much. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa introduced him to the church. Right before he left, he asked which way Grandpa was oriented in the casket, and then proceeded to give the casket a big hug since he couldn't give it directly to Grandpa anymore. Uncle Joel gave a really powerful prayer at the graveside service—he asked that the whole family could one day be together like this again, with Grandpa. It's a lot to ask, and it's moments like those that make you cry and realize the importance and power of eternal families. Anyway, after the funeral we took family pictures and came back to the chapel and ate. We had a lot of fun talking to Aunt Laurie. She never gets to see us, and I think she really enjoyed being with the family. Then we packed things up and started driving home.

• Family Pictures
• More videos and photos are available for family members. Email me and I'll send you a link.

Posted June 01, 2004 (11:37 PM) | Comments (1)