Turkey trimmings and cemeteries~

This post was originally drafted the month after my mom passed away. I just found it in my drafts folder. The feelings are all still very real and present~

My mother passed away on November 6th, 2017, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. We opted to celebrate her life in her home state of Georgia the weekend of Thanksgiving that year. Which was a blessing because I got to see all of my family. But then you have the whole memorial service and burial thing. I made some observations from those days-good, bad, funny -be it what may~

1. The Atlanta airport is a complete cluster of bad drivers, anxious travelers and cops the week of Thanksgiving. I could go the rest of my life without that experience again.

2. Even if I had just seen my sweet adult daughter in August, I was SO glad to see her smiling face hop in my car again at the airport-Thank you Delta for getting her safely from Hawaii to GA for us!! Being with her NEVER gets old!

3. Time flies even when you aren't always having fun, but have tons of details to look after. I kept running out of time. Time to organize, time to sleep, time to see friends and just time to rest. Fortunately my sister took care of most of the details-she was amazing! So were the employees of the Cemetery. Thank you Cheatham Hill Memorial Staff!!

4. My mom was a small person, but fortunately there was enough to go around for all of us who wanted memorial urns and/or trinkets. I know, it sounds crass, but we are comforted having a bit of her with us.

5. Funeral visitations are awkward. They just are. No way around it. But it was good to see folks I haven't seen in 30-40 years! 

6. It's okay to laugh at a memorial service. In fact, I hope there were more laughs than tears at my mom's service. She would have loved that. She was a crier, but loved laughing more!

7. Turkey really does make me sleep, or maybe it's that combined with the lack of sleep for several days. But Thank you to my sister-in-love Lynne and her family for having me for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal!

8.  Family photo shoots are fun, even with dogs and dragons. (Bearded dragons that is). Pam, I can't remember the last time I laughed so much in such a short span of time. I love your family!

9. I do not miss driving in Atlanta traffic! No, nada, not at all!

10. Life goes by way too fast, make the most of every second!

11. People will always shock you, even when you think you know them.

12. The hole they dig to bury an urn is so small and a perfect square. The whole process is really quite interesting.

13. Even now, 18 months after her physical death, but much longer since she no longer recognized me, I miss her every minute of every day.