Big weekend. On Friday and Saturday we attended my Grandma Roper's viewing and funeral. It was a beautiful occasion--wonderful to see all my cousins and the close family she created. I loved hearing the talks by her children and learning things about her I'd never heard before. She was a determined lady--I wish I could have known her at my age. There never would have been enough time with her, but she was 98 and lived a full, happy life.
My favorite story told at her funeral was when my Uncle Delwyn talked about how he was cocky as a 10-year-old, because he could outrun all the other kids in the neighborhood and thought he was the fastest human alive. My Grandma saw him rubbing it into some younger kids' faces while she was inside the house, and she stepped outside in her housedress to challenge him to a race. Grandma was quite the athlete and beat him easily, to the other kids' delight. Uncle Delwyn was embarrassed and expected a rubbing-it-in or a talking-to about humility when she walked up to him afterward to hand him a glass of lemonade. Instead she just gave him a squeeze and told him that he was growing up to be such a good boy, and she and his dad were so proud of him.
I'll write more in the picture captions:
^^My family at the graveside service. I thought about wearing black but went with Grandma's favorite country blue color instead.
^^Grandma in her younger years. I had never seen many of these pictures before. It is always interesting to think about how although it feels like ages ago to me, life probably felt the same for her as a child and young lady as it did/does for me now. She had 6 older brothers and was the youngest by 8 years.
^^All the grandsons singing at her funeral.
^^Nearly all of her grandchildren were able to make it to the service--only two missing who live out of state. It was an emotional but beautiful weekend.
^^And life keeps moving on! It is snowing today, but during the warmer days last week Alice helped me pot the boxwoods on our front porch.
^^I do feel like I'm about to enter my gardening season of life. I'm thrilled to have Alice along for the ride with me. Backyard progress is slow, but they have begun the second retaining wall and are prepping to install the patio.
^^Alice on her last day of preschool. She loves to choose out her own clothes. We are going to grow out her bangs this summer, and I can tell it might be a bit of an undertaking to keep them clipped back. I love Alice with bangs and would probably just keep getting them trimmed forever, but about a year ago she had a hairdresser cut her bangs way too thick, and really the only way to resolve that is to grow them out and then start over again.
^^My favorite part of the day is getting Alice from her crib in the morning. I always walk in to her standing up, looking at me like this, with a bulge in her belly. She tells me she has a baby in her tummy, I ask her if the baby is going to be born soon, she says yes, and then a few seconds later, out pops her Lovey. I tell her congratulations and ask what the baby's name is. She says "Baby Lovey." And then Baby Lovey starts crying or cooing happily while Alice rocks her in her arms. It is the funniest and best way to start each day.
