I wanted to take a moment and wish my friend Maggie peace as she says goodbye to her Dede....someone who was more then a grandmother to her.  We attended the service today which was beautiful.  Maggie spoke and she is so eloquent and strong.  It was very tough for her and it's very tough to watch Maggie be sad because she is always so upbeat and happy.  

I was proud of Liam too, who had a choice of going to lunch with all his friends for the end of school or going to Grammy's or going to the funeral.  He choice the funeral.  I said "You know it's church right?" And he said "Yeah I just think I need to be with Jack."  Jack is his buddy from school.  

It turned out well because Jack sat with us and that took a lot of pressure off of Liam.  Since Jack has been dealing with this for days Liam looked to him as the expert in how to behave and Jack was just his normal Jack. It was a great relief to Liam who thought he was supposed to be crying or something.  It was also good because the last funeral we went too was a disaster.  It was for my mom's aunt.  Someone who Liam visited in the nursing home but didn't have an everyday part in our lives.  Everything that you see in sitcoms that go wrong at funerals went wrong here.

They dropped the casket while trying to put it over the grave, it nearly fell in the hole.  Then Liam started yelling "What's in the box mom."  Before I could shush him my niece Sophie yelled "I think it's our new shed."  She was a large woman but a shed???

This funeral was peaceful and beautiful.  Liam didn't know Maggie's grandmother so while he got the seriousness of the occasion he wasn't very sad.  It was a beautiful learning experience for him.  Having his buddy near by helped a lot.  After chatting quite a bit I tried hard to keep them a bit still and quiet.  I explained that some people are very sad and need them to behave right now.  Jack turned to me and said "I know!!  This is a very big deal for us."  Indeed he is correct.  

When his mom spoke at the end I was very choked up.  She was really having trouble keeping her emotions in check while she spoke truly from her heart about this person she adored.  Jack saw the tears and says "Oh THERE she goes."  I am sure they had moments like this a lot the last few days.  

As I listened to her speak I was amazed at how well she captured the human spirit, imperfect but beautiful in it's imperfection.  I was thinking back to Monday when we both dropped our boys off at school.  Maggie was leaving as I was arriving.  She was like skip/running.  I asked her if she was off in a hurry and she said "No, I'm just feeling sparky today."  I thought that was so great.  Her husband is about to go out of the country and leave her with two boys for a long time and she still finds something to be sparky about.  That's just Maggie though, she can find the good and fun and joy in every bit of life, something she has passed to her boys.  I couldn't help but think what terrible timing to hear that her grandma had taken a bad turn on a day when she was feeling so sparky.  

Instead of any funny stories today (although the moment when Maggie's son Nick got away from me and lapped the church before I could even react was amusing) I would just wish Maggie well and offer a prayer to her beloved Dede.  Rest in peace.