Sunshine, Ice, Good Bye

Back on Sunday, January 18 my sister and I took the kiddos out to the McPherson County Fishing Lake for a little Sunday afternoon adventure. It was a beautiful day, especially by the water where the surrounding trees kept the wind away.

 Rylee was all about the ice.

 So was Noah, but since he's more cautious than Levi or Rylee, he mostly stayed on the rocky shore.

 Rylee was determined to collect as much ice on the table as she could. :-) This photo only shows the beginning of the collection, by the time we left there were quite a few chunks filling the tabletop.

 It was fun to throw rocks and ice chunks out on to the ice.

 The sky seemed big that day, a big beautiful Kansas sky. People have told me the sky is bigger in Kansas than it is in Pennsylvania, I think they're right.

 Cheese, crackers and apple slices made for a tasty snack!

 Levi wanted to go out on the ice...but Erica and I were nervous...and the potential for cold, wet tennis shoes seemed imminent.

 We went up to the trail head and walked along the trails for a while...but pretty soon the kids were tired of walking and it was time to get home to start making supper.

 When we got home, my mom called to tell us that grandma wasn't doing well at Bethesda, her fever wasn't letting up and she hadn't been eating or drinking. My gut had told me this was coming. I had known it as soon as I saw her a few days earlier on one of my regular Friday visits. Her room was full of nurses and other staff trying to figure out how to best care for her and make her comfortable. I knew. But that day, and on Sunday again, when she saw us her face brightened and filled with her beautiful smile. The kids all said good-bye to her and so did my sister. I went back on Monday to say my final good-bye to her. She died the next day.
A week later we celebrated grandma's life at her funeral. Celebrated is a tricky word. In some ways we did celebrate, we laughed and had fun traveling down memory lane. But there were moments of deep sadness, too.

 The family made their way out to the cemetery...for some reason our boys thought it was a race so we were the first ones out there.

 My cousin Austin made the wooden box that Grandma's ashes were buried in. The box was on a comforter that Grandma had made years ago.

 After a brief, but lovely, graveside service the great-grandchildren took turns shoveling sand into the hole. The kids worked hard to get all the sand in - and as children often do, they brought smiles and laughter to the adults watching them.

 Bruce and my dad picked up where the kids left off, and shoveled the remaining sand and dirt.

 There is nothing simple about saying good-bye.

I put my camera away after we came in from the cemetery. But the funeral itself was also very nice. I managed to get 98% of the way through reading the life sketch before I got choked up. My sister sang, my cousins and Uncle sang a couple songs, my other cousins shared memories that the 7 grandchildren compiled. It was a celebration, through tears and laughter.