Thoughts On The Funeral

The minister's name was Hymen Wood. I smirked through out the funeral about this. He never met my g-pa and all he did was read the obit and then open it up to family and friends to speak out. Two days ago my mother, aunt, and cousin spent several hours with him telling stories of my g-pa, and he never mentioned one of their stories.

At the end of the end of the service he concluded by basically saying my g-pa was going to hell, as were all others who didn't believe exactly what he believed (which was the entire congregation minus one uncle who attends his church). I now think of him as as a worse name than Hymen Wood (which took some thinking because his parents punished him pretty good with that one).

During the service I kept looking at pictures of my grandfather still in shock that he is no longer around. I don't know when I will wrap my mind around this loss in my life.

Three friends came to support me and it pretty much made my day. The also got to witness the fam up close and personal. This may have killed any supportive feelings they might have in the future.

My mother's eulogy included a detailed account of how she told g-pa to walk to the light as he died. I get why she would do this, and had it been my own father, who's to say if I wouldn't have done the same. Nonetheless, I still get the image in my head of the creepy people in Poltergeist.

She also talked about how close my family is to my g-pa's girlfriend's family (two families becoming one was her term). This lasted until the reception when she began referring to the g-friend as "that bitch." "That bitch" was sitting about 6 seats down from her while the rant took place. Awkward.

Also during the eulogy she went on and on about how my uncle was now going to take care of everyone (aka her). As I prepare to begin my new job I have been making lists in my head of things I want to save for (house/adoption/new mattress). As she spoke I realized I need to start a savings account for her needs too. Luckily though there was no spontaneous singing from anyone (especially her) during the service.

Several people said lovely things about g-pa, and minus being told I was going to hell for believing in evolution (and space travel--what the hell kind of a minister was he??) it was a nice memorial.

During the reception, the soup course to be exact (tomato soup no less), my mother went into great detail about my grandfather's bodily functions and how this was how they knew the cancer was back. It will be along time before I eat tomato soup. A very long time. I was really glad to be sitting next to my friends. Because all I had to do was look at them and know that I wasn't the only one done with the first course. The rest of the meal I actively worked to block her out (at least until I was finished eating).