The funeral was.....nice. I feel it was very heavy on religion and scripture, which, anyone knowing my Grandpa, was not a religious man. He never went to church, never believed in this. I'm sure he was looking down at this, rolling his eyes at us. It started off with a prayer and song, which was fine...it was simple. I didn't care for the speech that was given by my Grandma's friend/pastor(??) (who, as good intentions that she had, stated in her opening that she hadn't really even known my Grandpa...to be honest, I think the first time she ever met him was back in March when she officiated my grandparents remarrying each other). Honestly, I would have much rather have heard more about the man my Grandpa was. Out of the entire thing, I did enjoy my Grandma's short personal eulogy of my Grandpa. It spoke to exactly who he was...a man who was a hard worker, who'd give you the last dime in his pocket if you needed it, whose dream in life was to win the lottery and buy a Cadillac :). I didn't care for the ending of the funeral, where it ended in a prayer where we all joined in hand holding and was given by some guy (from my Grandma's church) who had never met my Grandfather. I felt like we were ending a random church sermon. I'm sorry, but this just wasn't my Grandpa. I was also a little hurt that nothing was mentioned about me. I heard two (out of the three) of my brothers' names mentioned during the funeral, sympathy even addressed to them. The (dead) dog got more shout outs than I did, for goodness sakes! (I was even upset over the paper obituary that was submitted, which had no mention of him having grandchildren or great-grandchildren). I mean, after all, he raised me. It just hurt. My feelings on this funeral are just so mixed...There's no re-dos for this....
Afterwards, there was a gathering at a house out in Selah put on by another church friend of my Grandma's. My Grandpa's family (Uncle Ted, Uncle Luke and Aunt Sib), stopped by for it. I enjoyed their company a lot. I was honestly hoping to hear stories they might have to share about my Grandpa, but that didn't really happen. They did share stories about their younger days of living in Yakima, which I enjoyed nevertheless. My Aunt Sib did offer me to stop by sometime and she would give me a picture she has of my Grandpa (he didn't really have many of his younger days, that I'm aware of).
I want to say the day after the funeral is when I officially stopped crying. The hurting feeling inside has eased up a bit (as far as the feeling of losing someone....I still have a little bit of anger over other family issues that came about after his passing, but I guess I'll eventually get over it). It's hard visiting my home; I kept expecting to see my Grandpa sitting at the kitchen table or to walk down the hall to the living room to see what we're all up to....
Clifford and Kristjan, looking really nice all dressed up
My brother Roddy with our boys
Peter (who was one of the pallbearers) and our boys, right before the start of the funeral
These are a few (ok, a lot) of my favorite pictures of my Grandpa....
My Grandpa and me as a baby....he called me his "Little One". When I was a little girl, every Saturday morning, on his payday, he'd bring me a whole pumpkin pie just for me. It's my favorite pie, of course :)
Me and Grandpa for my high school and college graduations
Grandpa on my wedding day. The first two pics, especially the first, are my favorites of him. I wanted him to walk me down the isle. Him dressing up and wearing a tie was a big deal, if I recall...but he did it for me :)
Grandpa holding his first Great-Grandson Clifford....followed by his second, Kristjan Glenn (when I found out I was having another boy, I was excited because I wanted to use my Grandpa's name for his middle name). BTW: see the jacket he's wearing??? ;)
Misc pics of Grandpa with his boys throughout the years. I know he adored them.
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