This will be all about my aunt's burial so....fair warning.
Wow what an interesting day today was. First of all, crazy lady (my cousins "girlfriend") didn't show up. My cousin was dressed in blue jeans and a camo shirt for his mother's burial. We arrived at the funeral home for the family viewing of the body. My aunt looked horrible. I guess it could be attributed to the fact that she was sick, the funeral home didn't put any makeup on her, or maybe the fact that one day she was at the funeral home they didn't have power. I was sorta creeped out and didn't really look at her. I did the same thing at my dad's funeral though he looked really good. Once I looked, I was good to go. The funeral home was just the family although a good friend of my cousins who was to be a pall bearer came with him. We are talking poverty here. I got really sad because I realized that my cousin is left on this earth all by himself. He does have 2 uncles, me and my mom and brother and then his adopted dad and his real dad but, he and his mom were together 24/7. His mom was his life and he was her life. He was just this lost soul. So off to the cemetary. The public was invited there. My aunt didn't want a funeral. This son is mentally ill and she didn't think he would be able to handle it. Well, we pull up and nobody is there and there are 3 little flower arrangements, one from my other brother, one from some other cousins and one from a family friend. There were a few people that trickled in but it was just so sad. How awful to live your life and only have a handful of people to mourn your death. My cousin kept crying and crying but at the end he held it together pretty good. When we finished he put the flowers in the back of his truck and drove off, just like he was riding around town on any normal day. I kept comparing it to my dad's funeral which was a big mistake. First of all my dad's funeral was at the church there were so many people (my dad was a school teacher, owned a business in town, and played the organ at my church). The church was packed that day, my dad looked great, there were tons and tons of plants and flowers, my dad's casket was gorgeous (my aunt's had to be special made she was so big and it ended up being just a flat top square box casket), the flowers were brought home by the funeral home. There were just a lot of differences. I wasn't going to go but in the end, I am glad I did. I would have hated to have regretted not going.
There were some things that happened to that were not related to all that. First of all, at the funeral home, this really nice looking guy came in. Well, he is a first cousin that I never even knew I had. Seems that my uncle was married once before and this is a son that he had that he never claimed. Today was the first day that he had ever introduced him as his son. I just met this guys mother not too long ago when I met his sisters that were also new cousins to me. I know, how can you have cousins that you don't know. Then when we were at the cemetary, my brother said "Gee, who are those people buried there? They have our last name" Me: "Ummm, grandpapa and granny LOL". It has been so long since either one of us have been there that we didn't even know it was our grandparents. It was really funny.
So all in all it was a good day. Right now, I am pretty emotionally spent. I am really glad that everything is over. I have peace that my aunt knew about crazy woman and that is why she called us to get her money. I also found out that crazy woman ran up my cousins credit cards and put him in a financial situation and then skipped town for 2 years, then when my aunt got sick, here she came running back. She (crazy woman) was furious at us for "stealing" the money. I think my aunt knew very well why she came running back and trusted us to take care of everything to protect her son. I know that last Saturday night there was beautiful music when she crossed through Heaven's gates and my daddy was there with open arms to receive her.
This picture is of my Mill Hill Picket Fence for September. I am so glad to finally be finishing these. I have the ones for the rest of the year to finish but will hopefully do those as the months come around.
This picture is of my current progress on Queen of Freedom by Mirabilia. I have finished the bottom of her dress except for the beads and the Kreinik. I don't know if I will be able to finish this any time soon or not because I am getting a bad case of startitis, which leads me to my next picture.
My next project is The Scent of Old Roses on Cherub PTP fabric. It was the only fabric I had that I thought would be suitable but I think it will do OK.
