Amber and Dan's Blog: Viewing and Funeral

Extended family started arriving quickly after Mom's passing. Dad finished her obituary quickly, it was published June 30. Her viewing was Friday night, July 2 and then her funeral was Saturday morning, July 3.
It was amazing to see the number of people who came to both. There were so many flowers, kind condolences, and love expressed to all of us. Mom touched so many lives. People flew in from all over the country to be there for one last goodbye.
The viewing was peaceful and a good chance for some closure for all of us. Mom's body looked beautiful. I loved that the funeral home where the viewing was held had two screens playing picture slideshows from Mom's life.
Other than the fact that a funeral is a sad time, it's really a great family reunion. I just kept wishing Mom was there to enjoy all those that came. I imagine she was experiencing a similar time on the other side with all our loved ones there.
The funeral was short and sweet--just lasting an hour. As we talked about this, my sister mentioned that while Mom would have wanted us to celebrate her life, she wouldn't have wanted it to take all day. She would have wanted people to come to the service and still have time with their families on that Saturday. My brother read the obituary that Dad wrote, a good family friend and ward member spoke, and the stake president closed. Another dear friend sang a medley of primary songs. We closed with the song "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go". I remember the day after Mom died helping Dad finalize things for the funeral and realizing we needed a closing song. (Mom had chosen the rest of the program, we were just short one song). We were flipping through the hymnbook trying to find something not too somber/not too upbeat and that song was perfect.
We had a police escort to the cemetery and in the limo with my Dad and siblings, we were all fascinated watching the police zoom around the procession and keep things moving. We tried to count how many cars in the line, but there were too many to see. The cemetery is very nice, but since it was 106 degrees that day, we weren't tempted to linger long after the dedication of the grave.
We came back to the church for a nice luncheon and spent the evening with all the family that was in town.
We counted Saturday night and there were almost 50 people there at my parents' house. Sunday everyone flew out except one of my cousins. We all went to our church meetings just like we always did. There is such comfort in routine.

At the viewing, July 1, 2011. (*Lots of people asked how our kids did at the viewing. They did great and I'm glad we brought them. We had spoken many times of how Granny's body was sick and would die and her spirit would go to heaven--the glove analogy and all of that. Before the viewing we told them we were going to see Granny's body and that because her spirit was in heaven, her body would look asleep, wouldn't move or talk, and that she would feel different if they touched her. They weren't nervous or scared and were constantly asking if they could go wave at and look at Granny one more time.)