A beautiful Weekend... Grandpa's Memorial Service

Although it was a very sad occasion, it was also a celebration of life!

Almost all the family was able to come together, minus 2 Eric's wife Jen and their little baby Lucas. We enjoyed a great meal at Dad's brother Mike's house and enjoyed catching up on life, laughing, telling stories and looking through photos. Dad scanned pictures and then I put them into a collage and had them printed and mounted. They were beautiful. It was such a joy to do a fun trip down memory lane. It was also so neat to see my grandpa's life in pictures. 

The ceremony was surprisingly emotional for me. 

If you knew Carl, you knew he was a tough guy, but he also had a soft spot. Unfortunately, my dad and his siblings didn't see that soft side when they were little. Lots of bed time stories when I was little were about dad growing up. All the crazy stuff they went through when sheep farming and the bad, and very comical, things they did. But, there was usually something about punishment in those stories. I grew up so thankful my daddy wasn't like that, but also had quite a bit of bitterness towards my grandpa for the way he treated those I loved so much. When we moved Carl to Indianola, I grew closer to him in a way that I never thought possible. I was always greeted with a hug and kiss and said good-bye the same way, and he always told me he loved me and was praying for me. He adored Brian and Derek too :D So, back to the service. It was a testament to his life, and my uncle Dave talked and did wonderful. I laughed, cried and repeated those again and again. The hardest part of it all was seeing my dad, he is a crier and I love that, but I never saw him cry like this. It was so emotional and made me fear the death of my parents. 

Carl fought in WWII and there were lots of military there. We walked out of the church to a gorgeous sunny sky with men on each side with their guns raised. The cemetery is right across the street so we walked. I have been their once to visit my grandma's grave, I hear she was a gem and I unfortunately didn't have the joy of meeting her. We gathered around the graves, we actually had the service another family- my dad's aunt which was my grandma's sister-in-law. They fired shots and played taps, luckily it was sunny so I could hide my tears behind my sunglasses ;D So after that novel, I was truly blessed by the service. It was the emotion I needed to feel and it felt great to finally get it all out in tears and smiles. 

We had fun time with family after that as well. It was such a joy to see cousins again. It has been a long time since we have all been together. Hopefully it will happen again soon!