Skip and I went to Sarnia on Wednesday to attend my sister, Valerie's funeral and visitation. Before we went to the funeral home, we stopped in at the cemetery to visit the family plot. It is a beautiful setting amid many trees. I've been visiting there since 1961. My mother,
brother,
and adoptive mother are buried there.
The sawdust on the plaques is from an oak tree that was cut down nearby. I'm guessing big limbs came down during a recent storm and there was damage to the tree trunks. The logs were about 16" in diameter so the trees must have been pretty old.
At the funeral home, we first just had the family there, then visitation started and we received many friends of Valerie and my nieces Ana, Rosa, and their families. A couple of my former colleagues from over 33 years ago even came to give their condolences and were able to meet and visit with Skip whom they felt they knew already from my many Facebook posts.
Afterwards, most of us went back to Rosa's for dinner which had been provided by a dear friend of Rosa and Darryl's - enough to feed the bunch of us - delicious pasta with a bolognese sauce and the best garlic bread I've ever tasted.
Normally Skip and I would stay in a hotel as we don't like to impose but we took Rosa up on her kind offer to spend the night at their place. I knew I wanted to soak in as much of the family togetherness as I could after our day of honouring Valerie. As crappy as the circumstances are that had us congregate, it really was a lovely time being together.
The next morning (yesterday) we headed for home, giving Rosa and Darryl's son, Derek, a lift back to London en route.
Back at home, we're both taking it pretty easy after the last few weeks of tragic family events. I'm somewhat numb at times, can't concentrate on stuff for any length of time, and really don't feel like doing much but allowing myself to wallow in my grief as it washes over me. From my past experience, this works well for me and I know I'll be OK in good time.
The kindness of my friends and family has been such a comfort, so appreciated, and very overwhelming. There have been phone calls, emails, messages, gifts, folks just checking in, etc. Yesterday afternoon, my neighbour came to the door with dinner for us - delicious chicken schnitzel and home made potato salad.
Today I finished up the stitching on the model I'm doing for Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery and took a bunch of photos for her to promote it at the Needlework Expo at the end of next month. She's dropping by tomorrow to pick up the triangular scissor case and fob that I stitched and finished for her.
I made a couple of project bags early in the week for Joanne from Monday morning stitching. It was good therapy. Sharon wants me to make her one, too so I'll get that fabric tomorrow when she's in the neighbourhood.
I have a couple of stitching projects of my own I putter away on during the Monday morning stitching sessions.
It's been a pretty emotional few weeks here and I'm glad that things are calming down. I'll be resuming normal activities very soon.
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