Grandma's funeral and the rest of Kansas
Oct. 26th, 2024 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glacier_kittyYesterday was grandma's funeral. The night before, we found a bunch of pictures and taped them to a couple poster boards to display by her casket, which looked great! The girls all wore blue and one or two of grandma's necklaces (and in my case, one of her curtains haha!). We gathered 30 minutes before the funeral to look at grandma one last time and to say our goodbyes. The chapel it was held in was GORGEOUS, the stained glass was so pretty! It took me a few minutes to be able to go up and look at grandma laying there, and could only look for a couple seconds at once. That's only the second time I've ever seen a (human) dead body. *shivers* A few of grandma and Julie's friends came, a couple who I met a couple years ago when grandma lived in the other nursing home (we had lunch together). The reverend's service was nice..mom and I wrote him a little something in honor of grandma so we wouldn't have to go up and speak haha. Gina went up to speak (she arrived the day before, and is staying at the same hotel we are), and said things like "Jordan, grandma will be with you when you find another job. Joelle and Jessalyn, she'll be there at your wedding. Heather, she'll be there when you're choosing what book you want to read, and when you pick out new curtains!" OMG haha! Nicee. :P After the service, the funeral professionals (undertakers??) closed the casket and we walked behind them while they led the casket through the mausoleum to her last resting spot. I'd never been in a mausoleum before (that I know of), and always pictured them as dark, but it was the complete opposite! It was pretty nice. Grandma's spot is outside and overlooks the trees. They had to use a lift since the spot was at the top. I hope her spirit is happy there!
After the funeral, we had lunch at grandma's retirement home, then went back to Julie's house. We talked for awhile and then the alcohol came out haha. We gradually became..very under the influence haha. All our stress and inhibitions left us and we just went INSANE haha. Our conversations were QUITE interesting haha. I hadn't seen Julie having that much fun in a long time. Someone mentioned karaoke, and Joelle got her computer and microphone and stuff. Joelle and Jessalyn started with a song from High School Musical..they'd obviously practiced many times together haha, it was fun watching them. "Proud Mary" was another song from the night, and then I was asked if I wanted to sing anything..I had had enough wine to be like "sure, why not" haha. I chose a song I'm very comfortable with and love, "Do You Hear the People Sing?," and mom and Julie joined me. I'm a terrible singer and dancer, but at that point, literally no one (including me) cared. It was SO much fun!! It was the one time where I actually WANTED someone to take a video of me haha, I'm NEVER that outgoing, and it had to be documented. :P Then somehow people started twerking haha, and even MOM joined in! I never thought I'd see THAT in my lifetime haha! It was so amusing seeing everyone drunk and being silly. :P I don't think Dean was having quite as much fun as everyone else, since he had to drive us back to the hotel..sorry lol. Joelle has POTS (a heart condition that makes her "crash" easily, for one), so I have no idea how she was able to be active for so long! None of us passed out or couldn't walk or anything, but we were definitely very silly haha. It was fun and needed after a stressful week. It was nice to get into bed after all that :P
I definitely felt very tired today when I woke up haha..not a morning person LOL. Unsurprisingly, Julie and Joelle and Jessalyn (Jordan had to fly back to Colorado after the funeral) were far too tired to go out, so the rest of us went to Barnes and Noble and went downtown to the art district..businesses were giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, so it was pretty busy! The costumes were cool though! There was this HUGE antique store we went to, it was three floors!! It definitely took quite awhile to look through that store haha. There were lots of books, creepy dolls (they're all haunted, I'm sure D:), and lots of other random things. There was a rack of old postcards, and suddenly I got a "lucky" feeling, like when I won $500 from the Rubber Ducky Race and found a copy of The Worst Journey in the World in the same day, so I looked through them, hoping to find a four-poster bed haha. I about fell over when I ACTUALLY found one!!! I had to say "NO WAY" haha. I looked through the rest of them, but there was only the one I found. I love that lucky feeling! After we finally escaped from there lol we had dinner and went back to the hotel so Gina could get her truck, then went to Julie's house. They were going through more of grandma's old things, so mom and Cindy joined them. When Gina arrived, she stayed for a couple minutes and then for some reason got super stressed out that we were going through grandma's things. She said she was leaving and slammed the door behind her. Uhhh..what?? We had been getting along so well! I feel like there's some anger she needs to work through. I hope she's ok when we get back to the hotel
Tomorrow, I fly back to Fairbanks. I'm always sad to leave family, but we'll make sure to still have reunions! It'll be great seeing Abby again, and going back to work lol. Hopefully the roads aren't still messed up from the storm. I'll post the rest of the pictures when I get back home, but here's the video of the "Do You Hear the People Sing?" karaoke!
Super fun! I love Julie's "microphone" haha
24. How Do You Celebrate Your Birthday? I go out to eat with my family and eat cake!
25. When Have You Failed? What Did You Learn From It? Many times..math tests in school for one. I had to study hard so I could barely pass LOL
26. What Activities Make You Feel Most Alive? Being in front of glaciers, being able to let loose like last night, etc
After the funeral, we had lunch at grandma's retirement home, then went back to Julie's house. We talked for awhile and then the alcohol came out haha. We gradually became..very under the influence haha. All our stress and inhibitions left us and we just went INSANE haha. Our conversations were QUITE interesting haha. I hadn't seen Julie having that much fun in a long time. Someone mentioned karaoke, and Joelle got her computer and microphone and stuff. Joelle and Jessalyn started with a song from High School Musical..they'd obviously practiced many times together haha, it was fun watching them. "Proud Mary" was another song from the night, and then I was asked if I wanted to sing anything..I had had enough wine to be like "sure, why not" haha. I chose a song I'm very comfortable with and love, "Do You Hear the People Sing?," and mom and Julie joined me. I'm a terrible singer and dancer, but at that point, literally no one (including me) cared. It was SO much fun!! It was the one time where I actually WANTED someone to take a video of me haha, I'm NEVER that outgoing, and it had to be documented. :P Then somehow people started twerking haha, and even MOM joined in! I never thought I'd see THAT in my lifetime haha! It was so amusing seeing everyone drunk and being silly. :P I don't think Dean was having quite as much fun as everyone else, since he had to drive us back to the hotel..sorry lol. Joelle has POTS (a heart condition that makes her "crash" easily, for one), so I have no idea how she was able to be active for so long! None of us passed out or couldn't walk or anything, but we were definitely very silly haha. It was fun and needed after a stressful week. It was nice to get into bed after all that :P
I definitely felt very tired today when I woke up haha..not a morning person LOL. Unsurprisingly, Julie and Joelle and Jessalyn (Jordan had to fly back to Colorado after the funeral) were far too tired to go out, so the rest of us went to Barnes and Noble and went downtown to the art district..businesses were giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, so it was pretty busy! The costumes were cool though! There was this HUGE antique store we went to, it was three floors!! It definitely took quite awhile to look through that store haha. There were lots of books, creepy dolls (they're all haunted, I'm sure D:), and lots of other random things. There was a rack of old postcards, and suddenly I got a "lucky" feeling, like when I won $500 from the Rubber Ducky Race and found a copy of The Worst Journey in the World in the same day, so I looked through them, hoping to find a four-poster bed haha. I about fell over when I ACTUALLY found one!!! I had to say "NO WAY" haha. I looked through the rest of them, but there was only the one I found. I love that lucky feeling! After we finally escaped from there lol we had dinner and went back to the hotel so Gina could get her truck, then went to Julie's house. They were going through more of grandma's old things, so mom and Cindy joined them. When Gina arrived, she stayed for a couple minutes and then for some reason got super stressed out that we were going through grandma's things. She said she was leaving and slammed the door behind her. Uhhh..what?? We had been getting along so well! I feel like there's some anger she needs to work through. I hope she's ok when we get back to the hotel
Tomorrow, I fly back to Fairbanks. I'm always sad to leave family, but we'll make sure to still have reunions! It'll be great seeing Abby again, and going back to work lol. Hopefully the roads aren't still messed up from the storm. I'll post the rest of the pictures when I get back home, but here's the video of the "Do You Hear the People Sing?" karaoke!
Super fun! I love Julie's "microphone" haha
24. How Do You Celebrate Your Birthday? I go out to eat with my family and eat cake!
25. When Have You Failed? What Did You Learn From It? Many times..math tests in school for one. I had to study hard so I could barely pass LOL
26. What Activities Make You Feel Most Alive? Being in front of glaciers, being able to let loose like last night, etc
