Life must go on, part 3

Grandmom's memorial service was today. Nearly everyone in the family was there, along with a few friends. It was at Haymount United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, where, as I learned today, Grandmom started the church's nursery. She always loved young children. I myself spent a lot of time in that very nursery as a child. I hadn't been to the church in years, and all my memories of it were rather vague. I looked around a bit after the service, and everything seemed to be where I remembered, though a lot of it seemed much smaller than in my memories, which would be expected. It was a good service, given by the church's associate pastor, Rev. David Gira. Afterward, we went to one of my Dad's favorite hangouts, Zorba's. We had some dinner, and stayed there talking for a long time afterward. After a while, we went to Granddad's house. I found out there that Granddad had Grandmom's ashes in his possession, and he hopes to scatter them at Ocean City when he goes there in October.

Like I've been saying, life must go on. It's been a long month, and I will still tell you, I don't know what else to say. It's been good to see almost all my family, and we will all certainly miss Grandmom.

Tomorrow morning, my Dad will be joining my Uncle Tim (Nelson) and Aunt Tara on a trip to western North Carolina. I plan to spend this week working and hopefully spending some more time with my Uncle David and Aunt Martha before they have to return to India.

The weekend after next, a pottery show will be held by my Uncle Tim (Blackburn) at Wesley Chapel Church, near my Grandparents' home near Hickory. I will be going up on that Friday to help them set up.

Classes start again on August 18, but I will still be able to work at the Clayton News-Star.

Life must go on, part 2

It's been almost three weeks since Grandmom died. I still don't know how, or even what, to feel. One would expect it all to happen in one moment, or within a few moments. No one wants the whole thing to last almost a whole week. The sad truth is, when you've had almost four years of it feeling like she's gone but she's really still there, all confused and lost and everything, you don't want to live through another week. And to add to that, the memorial service is still over a week away. I don't know if she has already been cremated or not. I don't know if they will be able to scatter her ashes where she wanted them-- Ocean City, NJ. I don't know what to do if another member of my family ends up in that situation. And I don't know what else I can say or do. I don't know. I may never know.

Life must go on.

Whether you're ready or not. I never gave a serious thought to life with only three grandparents left. I went almost 20 years without someone really close to me dying. The closest would be my great uncle Tom, who died when I was 7. I didn't really get to know him very well, and my memories of him are strained at best. Some would say that I'm blessed. To them I say: Yeah, but what happens when all the bad stuff that happens to other people happens to me?