celebration of life

I could write a post about this:

It was my first time as a pall bearer.  It's odd.  There's a body in there.  That becomes so much more real when you are one of the people hauling it away.  It was quite nice though that us six grandsons were pall bearers.  I couldn't bring myself to view the body.  I did so with my grandpa on my mom's side.  It was in the early eighties so I'm sure that they've gotten better about making the bodies look lifelike but it forever changed how I view him.  I didn't want a made-up image to skew my memories of Grandma.

However, this is how I choose to write about today:

This is all my grandma's great-grandchildren.  This was the first time that the entire family (save an in-law or two) were all gathered together.  It was great to see everyone and to talk about what an amazing woman my grandma was with others that loved her just as much.

It was the usual church ceremony during the funeral.  However, the closing music for the funeral was polka.  That's what Grandma loved.  When I stayed at her house during the winter vacations, I would usually wake up to the sound of polka and her two-stepping around the kitchen.  I'd get up so I could be one of the first ones to pick out a polish sausage to be cooked.  I'd later have to skin in (or Grandma could do it if I talked her into it) and she'd cut it up.  I'd eat it with a combination of ketchup and mustard.

That's what I like remembering and that's what I came back for, to celebrate the memories of her life.