This morning was my grandfather's memorial service. We had it in the chapel of Croasdaile Village, where my grandparents are living. It was so special-- Grandpa would have loved it. My wonderful friend, Andrea, showed up. She has known Grandpa for a loooooong time and grandpa would always ask about her. I was thrilled to see her there. It meant so much. A lot of grandpa's buddies showed up too, which is just so great to see.
My mom got up in front and read a poem by Henry Van Dyke called "A Parable of Immortality." Grandpa loved the water and being on the water in a sailboat, so this poem was especially fitting. You can look it up if you want to read it (I would recommend it-- it's beautiful), but my favorite lines are as follows (her meaning the ship):
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment
when someone at my side says, " There she goes! "
there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .
when someone at my side says, " There she goes! "
there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .
" Here she comes! "
Grandpa used to always look around at the family when we were all together and say, "Isn't this a great family?" or "Is this family great or what?" I could feel him there today with us smiling down thinking just that: what a GREAT family we have.
1 comment:
I just wanted to say that you should never apologize for what you write in your blog. That is what it is here for, for you to pour your heart into it. I think we always want to seem positive and happy, etc... but sometimes things are really hard...really really hard and it is our reality and we all need support and to talk about things that upset us or hurt our hearts. You didn't seem like a debbie downer, you seemed real.
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