life

Life really is short isn't it? Even if you live to be 90 years old like my grandmother do you ever accomplish what you want to accomplish? It was amazing to really experience the difference between my dad’s funeral, my grandmother’s funeral and the last funeral I cooked for, my Great Aunt Betty. Wow. I’m amazed. My dad’s funeral wasn’t a somber experience. It was sad, but don’t confuse our mourning with grief for the deceased. My dad lived. I don’t know a better way to say that. His life was something you could stand in front of a group of people that loved him and talk for half an hour and just tell his stories. People laughed. He was fun, he was kind and he was loving. He was everything you’d ever want in a dad.
Does that mean my grandmother was less? No, but she was different. My grandmother lived her entire life serving others. She wasn’t funny. She didn’t paint for sale on the school house. She didn’t put a cow in the gym. She didn’t talk her way out of traffic tickets. She didn’t borrow $10 to go to the liquor store. Instead she stood in the background making boiled raisin cake, baked beans and sloppy Joes. She canned her own chili sauce and beets. She could mash potatoes at 80 years old with strength I didn’t have at 30. No one had anything funny to say at her funeral. All they talked about was her service.
So was my Great Aunt Betty’s funeral based on service or based on fun? No, hers was based on love. She was the kindest most loving person I’ve ever known. She was a fierce mama bear and her cubs, not just her son, but anyone she loved, knew there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for them. At the same time she was more delicate then my grandmother. Her voice was softer and her words always kind.
So when you ask yourself why I’m such a smart alec, you can know it’s in my genes. When you ask why would you ever volunteer to do the things you do, you can know it’s in my genes. When you ask how could you love so fiercely or care for so many? It’s in my genes. How lucky am I?