good long life, good deep love

celebrating grandma ruthie’s life together was wonderful. on sunday night we all gathered in the church grandma went to every sunday for decades prepartion for the funeral service, for a family dinner, and for the viewing. it was neat to all be together and to meet some of grandma’s friends from many years past. it was particularly wonderful to meet elder cook, who in his youth was greatly impacted by my grandpa dean. 

here are grandma’s children then…

and now…

after the viewing, all of ruth’s posterity gathered at her beloved home on 5th north. i have a million memories in that house, which was very carefully designed by grandma herself. we all crammed in the living room and shared memories. the air was thick with love and gratitude and laughter and tenderness.

we found some treasures in the house, like the puzzles grandma made by hand (each grandchild took one home), the kitchenware we remembered eating so many simple meals with, old games and toys grandma loved to share with us, and ruth and dean’s college yearbooks. i completely melted over this letter from my grandpa to my grandma, written in 1941.

there was such a beautiful, hallowed feeling in that home that night.

on monday morning before the funeral began i loved seeing these dancing pictures that a second cousin had brought. grandma ruthie is in the middle in both pictures. isn’t she so visibly full of light and goodness?

the funeral was so so awesome. my incredibly talented cousins made the most gorgeous music, and dad and his siblings paid superb tributes. we were also lucky to hear from an apostle – elder perry went to high school with grandma and left us with powerful remarks that made the room stir with the spirit of god. as i sang with my cousins – til we meet at jesus’ feet – i just felt so sure of the reality of god’s eternal plan for his children and so sure that that meeting at jesus’ feet will be more glorious than we could ever, ever imagine.

the cemetery was chilly but briskly pretty, and the fleshly half of grandma’s soul was laid right next to grandpa’s.

there is human intensity when death touches you close, like it has in the past few weeks for me, no matter the circumstances. i’m really really really grateful and humbled that grandma had a good long life full of good deep love, and that i am part of her legacy.

{thanks for the pictures, shawni.}
{and deepest, deepest thanks for the incredible comments left on a heartbreaking post. i can’t tell you how tremendously blessed i have felt from that beautiful beautiful outreach. many more thanks from me coming next.}