Funeral Photo Dump

 This weekend, we're in Utah for a funeral, one of Husband's uncles has passed away. It was a weekend of love and sadness, but it was nice to see everyone. I'm just going to do a dump of all the photos of the weekend.

(My BIL and I were the only ones that wanted to go to Zupas. During our lunch, one of my SIL's asked how we were doing, so I moved to a different table to snap this pic as though we weren't together)

Funeral Day

 Today was mama's funeral. It was lovely, and absolutely one of the worst days ever. There's not much to say but I just wanted to get this out here.

RIP Grandpa Bob

Husband's grandfather passed away in September, and we waited until we were all home for Christmas to have the memorial. It was a lovely service and nice to hear the memories. 

Tiny Funeral

Today we had a funeral for my nephew. My sister in law was 25 weeks along, and the baby had been diagnosed with spina bifida. They tried to do a surgery to fix that, but his small heart couldn't take it and he passed away. We had a small memorial service today, and it was just lovely. Here are some pics of it:

It helps to know this isn't the end, we will be reunited with him after this life. But today, we are grieving this tiny tyke and his short time on this earth.

A Fine Funeral

Today was the funeral for Husband's uncle, Steve. He lives in Florida so we didn't get to see him too often, but the time we had together was awesome. We had a small family funeral, just us Clarks, and Steve's parents. Steve worked for Disney for many years (he played Goofy for many years, and was also the Queen of Hearts, very cool), so at his funeral we wore Disney shirts as a tribute.

At the funeral, Husband and his sister played the guitar for us to sing "What a Friend we have in Jesus", a lovely hymn. 

We will miss him, but I know that he is in a better place.

Laid to Rest

Today, we laid to rest my sweet in-laws, Steve and Sue. After a hard week of a lot of memories, and trying to figure out everything, today was the funeral. We had a viewing last night, and another small one this morning before the funeral, and then we had the funeral. I thought the funeral was good, it had the perfect amount of humor and sadness, and humor is sometimes needed in times like these. As we arrived at the cemetery, and the caskets were put into the spots, that’s mostly when it all hit me, that this was it. This was the final time we’d be with them, this was the last time the kids would be with their parents’ physical bodies. It kind of hit us all hard right then, that this was it. I’m grateful for the example these 2 have taught us, and I’m grateful that they’ve raised such wonderful children. I know the family will have to step in and step up to be parental-figures to my younger sisters in law, and I hope we can help out, and hopefully be as good as teachers as Steve and Sue would have us be. I know we can never replace them, nor would we want to, but I hope we can still be a good example, and help everyone from here on out.

After the funeral. the Clark side of the family got together and had a memorial-type thing. We all wore our family reunion shirts from a few years ago, and wore any hats we could, it was a crazy hat party, which is apparently something the Clark’s have done for years. It was nice, amidst all the sadness, to hear such fond memories of my in-laws, and to feel the love every one has for each other. Having grown up in Utah, in the Mormon culture, I think I’ve taken it for granted that everyone feels and believes the same, for the most part. So while we all have the knowledge that these deaths aren’t the end, only a see you later, the rest of the family, on both sides, don’t believe the same. So even though we have sadness over the deaths, we’re comforted with the knowledge that we’ll see each other again, in just a little while. It was just sad to see all of the relatives who think that this is it, they’ll never get to see their relative again. I’m grateful for the gospel – and grateful that we’ll all be able to reunite again, when it’s time for me to go.

Favorite Memories

I really struggled a while to know if I should write this here. After some encouragement from Chelle, I’ve decided to go ahead and do so. All of us children (well, the children and the spouses) were asked to speak at the funeral, and of course, I said yes from the get go. And then a day or so, I started to panic. There would be so many people there, and I’d have to speak in front of all of them. So tonight, after the viewing, I finally sat down to write out the talk. I knew that if I didn’t write it out, I wouldn’t be able to remember any of it, and I’d mumble and cry, and that would be it. We had all decided to talk on our favorite memories of them – the memories we had that we enjoyed the most, and after I thought, I had my memories, and here they are to be shared with you.

One of my favorite memories of Sue is when she was helping me. It was a while ago, and Husband was out of town on business. It was a Thursday night, I think, and after I got home from work, I just didn't want to be alone in the house. I don't know why, I don't know what was going on with me, but I didn't want to be alone, and I felt dumb just calling up anyone to admit what a sissy I was being, that I couldn't be alone. On the drive home, I was trying to think of reasons that I could call someone or invite them over, but I couldn’t come up with anything plausible. Of course, Husband and I talked for a few minutes on the phone, like we always do when he’s out of town, and I told him what I was feeling, and he just kept telling me to call someone, which my pride wouldn't let me do, so I said no, and that I'd just tough it out by myself. I hung up with him, and about 20 minutes later, there's a knock at my door, and when I open it, there's Sue, Anne, and Autumn, arms full of cookie dough, ice cream, cookies, and banana-split fixings. Of course, the first thing out of my mouth is “Adam called you, didn't he?” and yes, he had. So instead of them doing whatever it was that they were doing, they spent the evening with me, stuffing ourselves to the gills with unhealthy delicious food. And as they were leaving, Sue offered to spend the night, in case I needed more support, but I was just blown away by the whole thing. I know she had other things to do that night, maybe even important things, but in true Sue fashion, she stopped what she was doing to help someone else, and I'll never forget that, I'll always remember her coming to my aid when I needed it, and was too proud to ask for it.

My favorite Steve memory is one that happened when we invited them over for our first home dinner when we bought our house. Steve is really smart. Like, always has been really smart, honor roll, etc. So on this day, after we had finished dinner, Steve finds out that I own Mastermind (the game) and immediately he wants to get a game going. I'm sure people probably know this game, but just in case, two people play. Person A, or Steve in our game, picks 4 colors of pegs, and sets them in a specific order. Person B, or me, is supposed to pick the right colors, in the right order, to win. Now, he is great at this game, but I am terrible. So I remember playing this game for like, a straight hour, and I am HORRIBLE at it. And I can tell he feels bad for me, because he's giving me so many more hints than you're supposed to be given. And he's trying to help me win, and even Sue is trying to help me, but I keep thinking, I can do this by myself, I don't need help! Of course, I didn't win, I didn't even come close, but it was just so much fun. And then, we switch places, and I pick the pegs, and I think he won within, like, 5 moves. I haven’t played that game again since then, and that was 2 years ago. I’m not saying he scarred me, but still…

So there they are, my memories. These are ones I’ll definitely remember and hang onto, as well as the tons of other memories I’ve had. And as the old saying goes, as cliché as it is, they may be gone, but they’re not forgotten.