The Funeral

The funeral was beautiful. God was so good and provided in ways that I had not expected. Last week John was so incredibly sick. I had even called my friend, Michelle, who lives over an hour away to ask if she could be the back-up pianist for the funeral. I had so confidently said that John would do the music....didn't expect him to be in bed for three days and to not have a voice!!!!! Well, God knew what THE plan was to be. My dad sings with a gospel quartet at his church. He found out that two of his group were coming to the funeral and they asked the third guy, and there you have it, my dad's quartet made the huge sacrifice to drive THREE hours Saturday morning from Longview and they sang the songs and led the congregation in a hymn...just so happens that one of the quartet members is the music director at my parents' church. You would have thought that they were leading worship at their own church, it all was very smooth and natural. John was upright and ready on Saturday, so he was able to play before and after the service, and it was such beautiful, peaceful, worshipful music. My aunt read a letter from a few years ago that she had written to my grandmother for Mother's Day. My brother got to read the obituary. I was asked to do that, but I quickly passed that duty on to him....I knew that ALL 15 great-grandkids were listed by first and last name, and I didn't think I could do it without choking up! He did a fine job. I put together a slideshow and we put a Steven Curtis Chapman song and the Statler brothers on it. The show ended with a sound clop of Blayne saying "We love you Memaw". It was sweet to walk through memory lane on the slideshow. The pastor did a good job. He had visited my Memaw pretty often in the hosptial and at the nursing home. (or as we called it the "other" place, I don't know if Memaw even realized she was in a nursing home...) It was great to see all of the relatives. My Memaw still has 3 sisters and they all favor eachother so much. I got to see cousins and family friends that I had not seen in years. Gracie and Libby attended the service and she brought food (enough for our family gathering Saturday night at my Memaw's house!!!) John's brother and his family came as did his parents and his Mammaw. (BTW, I gave her Memaw's pairs of nice shoes...they both wear 8 1/2 narrow...you would have thought that it was Christmas. She was so excited) We had a wonderful time at the graveside service. My Unk's band played hymns and we sang. The pall bearers all dressed in white shirts, jeans and boots (per request of Memaw) escorted her casket to the grave...more like ran a fast sprint to the grave!!!! We enjoyed a delicious meal at the church afterward. It was a large crowd and I was impressed that the church was able to provide such a wonderful meal for so many people. I felt like the service and just the entire day went very smoothly and was honoring to both Memaw and the Lord. We all went back to Memaw's house for the afternoon. It was a happy, but at the same time a sad occasion, as we all realized that it would never be this was again.....