Trip to South Carolina

Ben was amazing through all of this, and I was not envious of all he had to do in a short amount of time.  He put on Jack's birthday, made sure everyone was packed, got the kids to bed on time, and got everyone to the airport early the next morning.  They arrived in Columbia in time for dinner, and it was so great to see them!  They started playing with cousins as soon as they could.

Waffle House breakfast (at home, since they were only open for carryout)

Sydney likes Waffle House!  (Of course she does.)

While the spouses were home with the kids, the siblings were at the funeral home
for the first day of the viewing.  We had two three-hour viewing periods so that people
could spread out and there wouldn't be too many guests in the room together.  Dad
came in town and it was great to spend some time with him too!

A cousin in Kentucky drove his family down just to spend a few minutes with us.

We couldn't sit in the benches on the premises, so we had shave ice in our cars.
Except for Colin and Jack who walked from car to car.

By Saturday morning, we'd cleared everything out of Mom's apartment
and we finished sorting through things at Megan's house.  Stacie, a cousin
who drove down from Ohio to be with us, and Maddie, my nephew's girlfriend,
were extra helpful with this.

We had a second viewing Saturday afternoon, followed by a private
memorial service in the funeral home chapel.  It would have been wonderful
to honor Mom with a big funeral so that more people could have paid their
respects, but I actually really appreciated this little service.  Cat played piano,
I sang a song, Suz did a reading (which ended up providing some unintentional
comic relief when she was bombarded with questions from the kids), and then
there was time for everyone who so desired to stand up and share thoughts or
memories of Grammy.  It was really lovely.

The whole clan.

I love these guys.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  We got up early to start traveling home.

We got some bonus time with California cousins; they were on the same

flight to DFW, then we parted ways.

  

It was really nice to finally get back home.  My family had received meals, cards, treats, and gifts in my absence, making me even more aware of the blessing of having good people in my life.  I was moved by the kindness shown to us.  We are blessed in so many ways.

Finally home again.

It wasn't a celebratory day by a longshot.  But I think I was a little extra thankful for my family, and my faith, and my home.  I'm also thankful for the many years I had with my earthly mother on earth, and for the knowledge that I can see her again.  We are all so blessed.

This is the card I'd made for her, which arrived at her apartment while we were cleaning it out that week:

Happy Mother's Day to me!