welling with tears

Rain was falling from the sky and from the eyes of many today as we gathered for a memorial service at Good Shepherd. The woman who died a few weeks ago was remembered today by her family and friends. This was the first memorial that I assisted in and sang for. Nearer my God, to Thee got sung for the second funeral since my arrival. The classical style reminds me of voice lessons at MSU. It's fun to sing phrases with dynamics and a ton of vibrato! I'm an opera singer wanna be sometimes. We watched a slide show of photos from her life while listening to Vivaldi. I chuckled inside to think how hard it'll be to do this at my funeral. I only have 30,000+ photos on my hard drive to choose from! Her son read her eulogy, read cards, and told stories. Occasionally, he got choked up. So did I. After all my hours of CPE, I was worried I had become immune to sadness and grief, so it was really a pleasant surprise to feel the sorrow he felt at that moment. Plus, seeing a 70+ year old man tear up when talking about his mother just yanks at my heart strings. Bob shared a few memories, and Dave gave the homily. He too got choked up while speaking, as he just lost his father 2 weeks ago, and is still grieving his personal loss. I can't imagine so many funerals in one week. Not to mention one of them being a parent. My eyes began welling up with tears with him, I tried going to a different place in my mind, just so I'd have my composure when he was done. He ended strong and up I went. What a different crowd to be leading. Much different than Sunday morning. I led the creed, commendation, a prayer, benediction and sending. I pre-scripted my prayer before the service because I had this sense that people would be listening super carefully to each word I said and I didn't want to babble. When one of the family members came up to me after and said, "Gosh, I know I should've been listening to what you were saying, but couldn't get over how cute your shoes are!" I knew my sense was way off! :) I should've done the extemporaneous thing after all! The family made a wise decision in choosing Rascals for the lunch meal. Chicken teriyaki bowl for me! With extra sauce of course!

When I got home, the mist was still falling, so I grabbed an umbrella, my camera, and headed outside to see what kind of images I might find. The long spike-like plants here have beautiful leaves. The water beaded up inside in a perfect line. Flowers were welled up with tears of water as well. Individual drops waited to fall from the petals. Perfect funeral weather.

I've been getting e-mails from relatives concerning my Great-Aunt Francis as she's been sick lately and undergoing chemo. So, I wrote her a card, and left it sitting on my desk for 3 days before I finally bought a stamp for it. I sent it out 2 days ago, and got a call today from my dad saying that she had died. Let this be a lesson to me. Say what needs to be said sooner than later. I'm sad I didn't send it when I originally wrote it. She definitely didn't get the card in time.

After an afternoon long web-cam conversation with Kev, I got picked up for a hot date with Sue Labate. It turned out to be another night of overwhelming kindness. Sue invited me to a second round of card making with her and her teaching friends. Gosh, those ladies are the nicest people ever. The woman who leads the creative fun put our names in a bag for a number of drawings. We each won a personal stamp for the backs of our cards, and then my name was drawn for a five piece birthday stamp set! So cool! After Sue dropped me off, she called me to say that the hostess had secretly given her an alphabet stamp set to give to me as well. Such generosity! I'm looking forward to getting back to MN to my stamping supplies so I can use these new toys. There's another young woman in the group who is my age, and truly has one of the kindest spirits I've ever witnessed a person to have. My mission for this week: to get her number, call her up, and invite her to do something. She's awesome! So, I've got 5 new Valentine/love cards to give away, and more gratitude for the invitations to spend time with others. Thanks to Sue for her incredible welcome and for demonstrating true generosity.