Funeral

Nathan's Grandma, Edna, died this past week. Her funeral was on Thursday. 
I didn't know her very well but she always made me feel very welcome in the family. :)

Nathan and I went out to Princeville on Wednesday night for the visitation. We stayed the night at his parents and then went to the funeral on Thursday.   It was nice, I guess. I still feel uncomfortable calling a funeral "nice", but it was.   

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I have decided that some people must appreciate the way visitations and funerals are traditional performed, or else they wouldn't be the way they are.  I however, would prefer visitations and funerals to run slightly different. Don't ask me how. years of cultural tradition has impaired my ability to think creatively about the rituals we perform after someone has died.  If it were my choice I think I would have something like the Indian tradition of floating candles down a river or maybe sending the family member over a water fall.  They are both very legitimate ways to symbolize the letting go of a deceased loved one. 

In short, I have had few people die in my life. I watched the family stand for hours on end receiving the same comments over and over, with the occasional odd comment thrown in,  and I realized how emotionally and physically exhausting that would be.  It would be so much easier for them to stay home curled up in bed. And, yet for some reason, it is good for us to pull ourselves out of bed and face the reality that she is in fact dead. 

Anyway, enough of my rambling thoughts about culture, traditions, and death... On to ramblings about emotions... :)

The atmosphere of a visitation or funeral tends to be very somber. Or at least it is expected to be. But, I've decided that is an incorrect assumption or expectation. Funerals are emotional. Not sad.  Not somber. Not even a "celebration of life".  They are all of the above. In one moment some of the family is crying while others are laughing.   People grieve in different ways and heal in different ways.  And, when you pile a whole bunch of grieving, healing, reminiscing people in the same room together, you are going to get the full range of emotions. 

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People do say some odd things at funerals though. I will keep most, due to it being my opinion, to myself, but the best comment of the weekend was: "She looks so natural, she could just start snoring" :) 

After the funeral, we spent the afternoon with the family. 

On our way home,  Nathan and I decided to go to Tanner's to buy apple cider donuts. :)  They are wonderful. 

When we got home,  just as the sun was setting, I got to jump on the combine with my dad for the last few rounds in the last field of the season. 

Sunset. 

They are done!

We were both back at work on Friday. All week I kept mixing up the days and calling Thursday the weekend. It got quite confusing.  

Thanks for all of the prayers for Nathan and his family. I know they are appreciated! 

In Christ

~Michelle