final farewells - day 1

we made the trip down to the valley. we stopped to visit a cousin to settle the last of my dad's affairs, so strange to think he's been gone almost a year.

we made it to town about 5 & the funeral parlor doors opened at 6. all we needed to do was get some flowers, check in to the hotel, change & get there. in a small town should be accomplished in 1/2 an hour, even moreso when everything was pretty close together. not that i wanted to be the first one there, but i did want to get there somewhat early & visit with family & i had friends that would be there. my mom however had other plans, choosing flowers took forever.

at a grocery store.
with not a large selection.
round & round & round some more....

we checked into the hotel, changed, didn't even have time to put anything on my face & everyone was back in the car. well, my mom was dragging her feet, not that she was upset or anything, just not worried about getting there early...or somewhat on time for that matter. i had even gotten a few texts from friends & family who were worried that we hadn't shown up yet & she wasn't concerned.

we walked in at 7 & things were already rolling, it was not awesome. i felt like i was insulting my nana by showing up so late. we scurried up to the front to sit with the rest of the family. a pastor spoke, some guy sang, my uncles said a few words & so did my cousin ME.
she said she didn't know if she would ever be the same again.

after the services we finally got to say hello to everyone. nana's caregiver was so sweet & nice & even though i only understood 1/2 the things she was saying she made me cry so much. i saw my aunt O, although we knew she was coming i was still surprised to see her. i couldn't believe after years of not talking to her, of forbidding nana from uncle M's funeral & not ever going to see her in her final days, she would go to nana's funeral, but she did.

afterwards we met the girls (M & S) at a restaurant to hangout for a bit. then we went to a relative's house to visit with family for a few hours.

oh & at the parlor B & cousin ME got hit on by the same guy.
well, B claims he was not hit upon, ME knows she was & M, S & I all think it really looked like B was getting hit on, so it counts.