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My dear aunt Beth passed away at age 46 a few days ago, after struggling with lung cancer. It's been a sad time, but I was impressed with how upbeat everybody was. The day was devoted to sharing stories of all the good memories we have. There were a lot of laughs among all the tears. And tons of home-made cookies.
I was very impressed with how many people attended. Beth lived with her family out in Elma, Washington. If you know Elma, you know how teeny-tiny the place is. It's one of those "in the middle of nowhere" towns. She didn't have a lot of money, so she didn't travel and get out of Elma much. Yet there were at least 200 people there, I'd guess. It felt so good to see how many people's lives Beth had touched so deeply, just from her trailer in little Elma. She was a down-home type of lady, always wore blue jeans and t-shirts - the suggested dress for today's service - the last person you'd ever expect to be important to so many people. But everybody had a story to share about how Beth had made a very large impression on their lives.
I hope when I die my memorial service is as fun and happy and warm as that one!
Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts about Beth and the day, since you guys are all rapidly becoming like family to me, too.
Have you ever attended a "happy" memorial service? This was a first for me!
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
Thanks for sharing that with us, Libbie. I'm sorry for your loss, but it sounds like you have some wonderful memories. *hugs*
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I've been to so many happy funerals or memorial services. My dad's family does it very well as I've said before on here. There's food, hundreds (up to about 600) of people, usually a slide show or picture display, religious and nonreligious speakers, and at the last one I attended what was best was the children's service.
This was a funeral for a great uncle, who has 6 grandchildren younger than me (so two years ago when this happened between 6 and 17). One of his son in laws took the grandchildren, me and one other cousin into a small room before the actual service and talked about what would happen, what we were feeling, and we rehearsed the song we were to sing during the service. That was just the best thing I could have imagined at that time.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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