The Last of the Funeral Posts

I swear this is really the last of the funeral posts. But what can I say, it really sort of took over my life last week.

I had to share the collage. It was so fun to do. There were cards from my Grandpa post WWII, my dad and his brothers as little boys and even some from my cousins and I . The one thing I learned doing it is how important it is to write and tell some one how much they mean to you. It made us feel how much she loved us to see all the treasures she had saved from us. Now I have to go get a big box to keep all my kids crap in.

I am not into funeral pictures but I did take this one of the flowers on top of the casket because it had a fun story. When my Gram was a mom with little ones there was a lady in her church, Deleine Bowman. Her family owned the local grocery store and as far as local society went my Gram considered her the top. Every Mother's Day Deleine would come to church with an orchid as big as a dinner plate. Big time Wow! My grandpa would try, honestly he would but his frugal nature would really only allow him to splurge on the grocery store variety, more the size of a teacup. As the boys got bigger and we all came along we sort of clued into how much Gram loved a big orchid so having a "Deleine Bowman" orchid became the hallmark of a great Mother's Day to Gram. So my sweet, super-smart mom made sure that there were three,one for each son, "Deleine Bowman" orchids in the arrangement on top of the casket. Oh, and Mr. Bowman came to the viewing. My Gram would have been over the moon! Just for my cousin Camille, who had a baby the day before Gram passed, here is a picture of my dad, his brothers and their cousins that came to the viewing. Aren't they a handsome group? My dad is on the far right. As hard as this week was it was really great to see so many of the family members that are part of my rich childhood memories. Have to say I do prefer seeing them at weddings though!

Now back to some cheerful crafting and silly kid adventures!