It's Friday night and right now the world revolves around Donnellson, Iowa. I am at Liza and Dennis's house (parents of my cousin Hannah who has made many appearances in this blog). I am eating delicious Seyb food, drinking Saranac beer (a lovely Summer Brew), listening to the peaceful folksy funeral soundtrack we just created for tomorrow's service, and being comforted by the rolling chatter of friends and family as we are together to celebrate the amazing life of my Grandma Audrey Seyb. After a difficult struggle with multiple myeloma that lasted many, many more years than anyone expected (she is one tough cookie!!), she finally decided it was just as well to head on up to heaven and meet up with my Grandma Darrell, who has been there since last March, waiting patiently for his love to join him. We miss him greatly and the world will never be the same now that the two of them are gone....but I am quite sure they are happy frolicking around (probably square-dancing) on those glistening streets of gold.
Never in my life have I needed heaven to be real as much as I do right now: I need to know that she is smiling and laughing and experiencing the joy of being young and healthy. I can feel that she is. I am quite sure she is chatting up every single person she passes by, whether she knew them once or not. That is just the way Grandma was.
(skip ahead to now, which is Sunday afternoon. Still sitting at the Seyb house, most of the commotion has gone down, but we are enjoying food and laughter)
We had the most lovely funeral service yesterday. So many quirky Grandma stories that made us smile and laugh and tear up a little. We were touched by all the people who were there to share their memories and give us comforting hugs and words. Most of the relatives are on their way back to work, school, home, ect. Kendra and Ed are traveling back out to Las Vegas; Hannah will soon be flying back to Boston; Aunt Pam and Uncle Jim hit the road a few hours ago, bound for their New York home; and I will soon make the short trip back to Iowa City. It is strange to be here without Grandma Audrey, and it will be more strange to return to normal life knowing life in Donnellson will never be the same. At the same time, I couldn't be more thankful for the family I do have here and we will certainly continue all the wonderful family traditions, thinking of Grandma and Grandpa at each holiday, birthday and random get-together.
Safe travels to all my family on the road and in the air right now. You guys are seriously the best and I love you bunches.
Oh, and thanks to everyone else for reading :) Hopefully I'll get back on in a few days and fill you in on Real World: Iowa City (the TV show we think we are unknowingly starring in because we are just so entertaining in all of our researching and adventuring.) Happy Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment