Friday, June 23, 2006

The funeral mass (RL3)

Dad arrived in Tucson this morning, and we met him for lunch. Sis arrived late in the afternoon and met everyone at the funeral mass. The mass was, of course, as somber as could be expected. All three of grandma's children and all but one of her grandchildren were present, along with at least eight of her great-grandchildren. Personally, I was quite disappointed that none of her siblings showed up to pay their respects, but what can you do...

How strange is it that the seat I picked to sit in was the very seat grandma sat in every Sunday? Grandma was actually cremated earlier in the week, so there was no body to see, which provided less closure for me than a viewing or even a casket would have provided. I'm definitely glad I made the extra effort to see her in March.

There was much crying by many at the mass, and it was quite some time before the crowd dispersed. Part of the delayed dispersal was due to the fact that there was so much of a reunion aspect to the gathering. The mass was first time my father had seen my sister in eight years. And the first time all of his children were in the same room at the same time in that same amount of time. In fact, the last time my sister saw our little brother, he was Shelby's age.


Some time after the mass, nearly the whole family gathered at Pinnacle Peak for (an expensive) dinner. I'm pretty sure we were the noisiest family in the place (we're a family of loud talkers, getting us all in one place is inadvisable for those with eardrum sensitivity issues).

As is common at such places, there was a balloon artist. Also expected was Shelby having a monkey (in a tree) made for her. I was weary about the balloon because Shelby has had some bad luck with balloons of late.

Balloon

Sure enough, just walking out to the car, a couple segments of her balloon popped, causing the tree to begin deflating. Before long, the tree was completely deflated (and looking rather obscene). Not sure how long Shelby's bad luck streak with balloons is going to last. She must have broken a balloon mirror or something.

Baloon

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