Funeral

Well Oma's funeral was today and as far as funerals go, it went really good.

Bill and I rode out to Burnaby with Mom and Dad for the burial. Pastor Newman did a really nice job. He knew both my Oma and Opa so he was able to pull from that in how he lead the grave side service.

We then went back to our church in Maple Ridge where lunch was out for the family members until the service. We actually had 2 hours there, which at 1st everyone was "wow that's a long time to wait" but it ended up giving us a lot of time to sit and chat with everyone. It's good to catch up as in many cases we hadn't seen people since Christmas or before. And in my cousin Mike's case, it had been over 10 years, and this was our 1st time meeting his wife. It was good to chat with Jen and get to know her some. My cousin Al and his wife Kay are expecting their 1st baby in 5 weeks (she looks fantastic!) and it was our 1st time meeting cousin Mark and his wife Lara's baby boy, Sam (cute!).

The service was at 2 and went really well. The hymns chosen were excellent, and ones my Oma loved. In Christ Alone, of course, was very powerful. Pastor Newman lead a great message about our grandparent's legacy in Christ for us, and based it on Psalms 23 and 121. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.

After my Mom and Uncle Hans stood to thank everyone for coming and just shared how important everyone there was to my Oma, and to our whole family. After I read a variation of my blog post from last week, which I had written the night Oma died. My Mom read that post the next day, and it made her cry. So when I approached Mom about whether or not she'd like me to speak briefly on behalf of the grandchildren, after some discussion, they thought that would be good, and basically encouraged me to read my post from my blog. I edited it a little, but that's basically what I read. I'm glad I could take part.

After that was a Power Point presentation my Uncle Ralph had put together, after he and his wife Meta, and my Mom spent Saturday afternoon going through photos and enjoying time reminiscing. That was by far the most powerful part of the service. Seeing her from being a small girl, to young woman, a married woman, a mother, a grandmother... lots of tears, but it was beautiful. It was awesome to see pictures of her and my Opa, and to see so many pictures of her smiling and laughing. What an awesome way to remember her. And Uncle Ralph had copies of the presentation done up on disc already for family members, so we all got copies.

Following the service there was food and coffee and what not for everyone. Bill popped out to get Duncan from daycare and brought him back to socialize a little (he would not have made it through that service). What was really nice was people like some of my Dad's family came out, and there were other people there that it was just good to see.

Tonight the siblings (Mom and her siblings that is) are out for dinner to spend a bit more time together. It was so funny to see so much of the family together and see how much we all look alike!! I was told I look like my Oma at a young age, but we all saw my Auntie Elly in Oma. We're all connected though.

I want to thank everyone who has reached out with sympathy and support. While it is good for Oma she will be missed, and I'm glad I had a chance to shed some tears for her, but also lean on the people around me. Bill has been especially awesome, but my friends too. Yes, I am fine though, thanks for asking :)

God bless you all.