February 17, 2003

It was with sadness and joy that I attended the funeral of my grandmother, Hazel Howell, last weekend. She died after spending months sick and wishing she were already dead. However, my aunt Ginny spent a great deal of time with her, as did others in my family, and it seems she was comforted. The funeral was on Feb. 8, 2003. Kari spent a great deal of time arranging places for all my family to stay. Considering the size of my family, that would be no mean feat. Everyone arrived the day before, from as far away as the Washington D.C. area, Oregon, California and Arizona. I gave the closing prayer and was a pall bearer. Of course, others did things too, but I don't feel the need to cover every aspect of the funeral. The grandchildren sang a children's hymn. The weather was cold, cloudy, some snow on the ground. Lots of pictures were taken, which are available here. I did lose my camera in the grave, but fortunately, someone did go down to get it for me. The camera still works, too.

I am glad my grandmother is able to rest now. This life was a burden to her. My mother and her family are coping pretty well, but they miss their mother. It was fun, on the other hand, being able to see cousins and aunts and uncles I hadn't seen in ages. Elijah also got to see all his similarly aged (read: under 2 years old) cousins at the same time. I got a bunch of pictures and hope to put them up soon. I wish we had more time to spend together, but it was fun. Now there is talk of having a family reunion next year, after Jonathan gets off his mission. Both Kari and I would like the children of my siblings (hereafter referred to as the "cousins") to all know each other. Elijah had fun with his cousins and my siblings and parents and Kari and I all had a good time. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend much time with the Shields or the Richardsons, but it was very nice to see them again after so long.

Elijah is about to walk and has become very imatative. Make a sound with your mouth, and he will imitate it. Pretty cool, actually. He is wearing shoes now and we try to make sure he actually sits through church (boy, is that fun). He would much rather be out and about, crawling and exploring. He is also growing out of his 12 month clothing. And he isn't 10 months old yet. Right now, Kari is also planning a party for the many people we know around here that we haven't seen in a while. It should be fun.

Anyway, enough for now.