not your astronaut: life and death (part 2)

i've been meaning to get back to my blog about our trip back to kentucky for grams's funeral for awhile now. it was obviously a very draining and emotional time for the whole family. i am so fortunate to have such a loving and supportive extended family, especially my cousin ellen and her husband patrick who took such good care of us during both of our trips to louisville in the last month. ellen is such an awesome person ... i really can't say enough good things about her. she opened her home not only to erik, but to all of my brothers' children as well and arranged to have babysitters there all day so that we could spend time at the funeral home without having to worry about them. in addition to ellen's three girls, the two high school students watched erik plus my three neices and two nephews for more than eight hours. and during the other two days, patrick's mom gayle took care of erik and my youngest niece maggie in addition to her three grandaughters. it was really good to have the time to visit with the rest of the family and grieve knowing that erik was comfortable and happy.

the funeral itself was a very nice ceremony. i am not a particularly spiritual person and don't usually attend church, but religion was an integral part of grams's life and i was grateful to have the opportunity to participate in the mass. all of her grandchildren and their spouses had some role in the funeral, which i thought was such a great idea. my cousin ricky delivered the most beautiful eulogy for grams. he did an amazing job and i can't imagine that anyone else could have said anything more loving, eloquent, and completely truthful. grams would have been honored. having known grams and her equally deep devotion to her family and her faith has made me a better person. even though we lived far apart for my entire life, i will still miss her terribly. ellen and her sister karen put together collages of grams with our family that were displayed at the funeral home and they were such a joy to look at. they also created a slide show that was played at the funeral home with photos of grams throughout her long and eventful life. here are some of the pictures:

so beautiful

i love this one - grams and pop with their three children joe (my dad), nancy, and jim

uncle jim, aunt nancy, grams, pop, and dad

after the funeral on saturday, we went back to the holifield house and slept. i think we all felt a little better after that. and then most all of the family ended up back at the church for their picnic. it was actually a really good way to have some fun and spend some happy time together. i think the kids really loved it. these are the only photographs i took this weekend:

erik in the moon bounce