Funeral

I suppose I should post something here, but I'm not quite sure what. The visitation for Grandma was on Tuesday. She looked good.
She had a very strong relationship with Nips (the candy, and don't google for it unless you're safeties are fully activated). In fact, she used to have the family sneak packages of them into the hospital so she could enjoy them and avoid a lecture from the nurses. Afterwards they would sneak the boxes back out so the wouldn't end up in the garbage. In honor of this, they put a box in her coffin.
I spent most of the visitation chasing Relia around. Remember the apple pictures from last week? The foyer at the church had an apple motif, with clusters of fake apples and apple shaped candles. Needless to say, we undecorated that room in a hurry. She also loved to play with the commuion tray lid (just like a cymabl!) and was very curious about the electrical sockets. She kept me moving.
Later that night we went to David & Donna's house. Amy, Andrea and Tim were there with seven of their children (of twelve combinded). Andrea took Relia and fed her pasta and garlic bread and bleu cheese. She really is my daughter; she rejected the lettuce from the salad.
Over to Dad's and eventually she fell asleep. I took the opputunity to go for a late night walk. A wave thunderstorm had swept through earlier and another one was on it's way. That meant there were flashes to the northwest and the southeast. Very nice. One thing that I miss from Austin is the late night walking. This was 11p on a Tuesday night and it felt like I had the whole NW to myself. The area is very thick with oaks and they were still dripping from the earlier storm. I walked down to I-90 and listened to the trucks go by. There might be no lonlier sound than a single truck sailing past late at night.
Wednesday morning was the funeral. The service was nice. Relia made it almost five minutes (which was three minutes longer than I expected). Mom took her for the rest of the time. This was an enormous help, I'd begun to feel like I couldn't experience anything because I was too busy being a father.
I hadn't realized that my Grandpa had his funeral in the same spot. He died long before I was around so I never really knew him. Now I know a little more. Grandma was looking forward to seeing him again.
I miss her already but she wasn't an everyday part of my life. She was an Austin part and that's when it'll feel weird. And holidays of course. She's the closest family member to me that's died and my emotions are still figuring things out. I hope that wherever she is, she's happy.