Last Week

Last week was a weird one. I didn't have to work on Monday, so I was going to go to lunch with a friend and take it easy, but my mom called and told me that my grandmother had died. Everyone thinks that her heart just gave out after 99 years, which I guess I'm inclined to believe as well. The assisted living staff found her in her favorite chair, and since she never pushed any of the call buttons for a nurse she probably went in her sleep.

I still have her birthday invitation on my fridge.

It's kind of funny how even though she was 99, and even though my mom and dad had been giving my brother and I the whole "we need to go and visit for ____ occasion because it could be her last!" for what seemed like the past ten years, no one really seemed ready for it. Nor okay with it. I mean, this is only the second funeral I've experienced, but the entire congregation of people seemed drastically more upset than at the first funeral I ever went to, Dylan's, and he was in his teens and it was much more tragic in that respect. But maybe I'm biased, being that it was the first death in my family, and that I was sitting with and hanging out with all the other family members. By the way, if there were a prize to be won for the weepiest person at that gathering, I would (amazingly) win it. I guess I say amazing because I was definitely not as close to her as many of the other people there.

I think even if I tried I will never be able to forget the image of my grandmother's sister, the last living sibling of that family, walk up to the open casket at the end of the service and just lose it. It required three fully-grown men to lift her from the floor and help her back to a pew.

So I'm still a little bummed about all of the past week's events, but my coworkers and bosses were so nice and helpful when I had to get all of my shifts covered at the last minute, and John was definitely there for me when I needed him.