: Memorial Service
Today we had the Memorial Service for Grandpa. I had an invasion of relatives (about a dozen stayed at my house), which was nice and kept me distracted. First we stopped by the cemetary and watched a short presentation as Grandpa’s ashes were placed in a crypt next to Grandma. That was very difficult for me. I couldn’t watch but had to look away. During the Service I was to give a eulogy, which I wasn’t sure how to do. Though I was close to Grandpa, I really only knew him for a fraction of his life. It’s rather a challenge to summarize 91 years on the planet! I thought I was going to go later in the service, but apparently things were switched around and I was told, seconds before the thing started, that I would go on right after the opening prayer. That didn’t give me time to reread and practice, which meant I was more unpolished than I preferred, but I was more worried at being overcome with emotion and being unable to finish (we had a backup reader if I couldn’t make it). Fortunately, except for a minor flub or two, it went okay, and the main thing was that people really appreciated my unique perspective of Grandpa. My eulogy told stories about what I learned from him and thus at least wasn’t dry and boring (which was what my aunt had wanted). I think Grandpa would have liked it.
After the Service we had a pot-luck dinner at the church, which was neat, as I was able to see some people I hadn’t seen since I was a teenager. Grandpa had been one of the people who’d started the monthly pot-luck tradition at that church and they still do it today, though the church has had different leadership for many years now. Funny the way things like that stick.
I have created a Memorial Page for Grandpa on my website. It contains links to all my “Adventures with Grandpa” newsletters, pictures and audio/video clips, as well as audio files of the entire Memorial Service. I also broke out just my Eulogy, in case you just want to listen to that (it’s much shorter than the entire service). It’s all MP3 and MPEG, so it should work on any computer platform.
Topic: [/grandpa] |
