Last week a friend of my mom’s past away. Donna lost her battle with cancer, like so many others we all know. What was so interesting to me were the memorial services. My mom moved to a very small town in Washington State last September. Kinda almost makes Foresthill (where I grew up) look big, which I didn’t even know was possible. This friend of hers had lived there for 48 years and she had a lot of family in the immediate area.
With all of this, the funeral was held in a little church in town, and it was standing room only. After the very short services at the church we made our way to the cemetery for the graveside service. It was snowing – a lot – that day. So here we are this big group of people, trudging across the cemetery to say our final goodbyes. I didn’t know my Mom’s friend all that well, but I wanted to be there with my mom. I think being removed from the deceased person, I had a whole different perspective on the services.
I was thinking about how absolutely beautiful it was outside, there was white covering everything, the trees, the ground, the other headstones. It seemed so peaceful. I was thinking about how nice it was that there were so many people braving the elements to be there. Then my brother says “you she’s just up there laughing at all of us” referring to the sight it must have been watching everyone tromp through the snow freezing our tails off. And I thought, if it were me, yah I’d probably be laughing too.
I've never really considered burial as an option, I've always leaned towards cremation myself. But if you have to be buried, -- on a snowy hill, surrounded by pine trees covered in snow, and with so many friends and family surrounding, that would be alright I guess. Hopefully I've got a long time to really worry about that ... but this weekend, my thoughts were with you Donna and with your family as well.
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