Update from England

I thought I'd give Laura a break today as I think she'll have the blog the next three days. 

Things here are plowing forward.  Tomorrow is the day everyone is dreading; mum's funeral.  It's necessary and needed but at the same time we know it will be wretched.  The car will be picking us up here at the house at 9:40 AM and most of you Americans will still be sleeping as that is 4:40 AM to you.  We go to the church which is literally a stone's throw from here.  The Brit and I had our vows blessed at St. Michaels, and Gareth and Gina were married there, as well as Daphne and Allen.  Now this church will do a memorial service for one of its members.

Allen asked me today if I would be able to read for the service and I agreed.  Whatever he needs me to do so he doesn't have to worry about it; those are the things I wanted to be here to do.  Today I went with him to view Mum. Very hard, but as The Brit, Gareth and Gina did not want to go, I offered to go so dad would not have to go alone.  It's a very individual thing and it would not generally be something I would want to do either, but if it was something he needed to do, I can willingly support him and allow the other members of the immediate family to not worry about his going alone.

Anyway, I'll be reading this and it is quite beautiful.  Hopefully, I can get through it without crying. 

After the service, we are back in the car to escort mum's remains to the crematorium, where there will be another brief service with the family.  Then the curtain will close and it will be the end, other than the eternal memories and knowledge that we will all see her again someday. 

They have had a meal catered somewhere for after this where everyone will gather.  It's going to be a long, hard day, probably intermingled with laughter and tears.

Friday, we return to the crematorium to pick up the ashes and from there, I'm not sure of what the plan is.  We fly home early Saturday morning.

There are other things currently being considered, which I will speak more about later.  Sometimes, life calls us to put off things we would like to do, to do things we need to do for someone else as well as for ourselves.  The first year for dad is going to be hard.  Though the loss of mum affects everyone, he has lost his spouse, the one he shared his life with.  We need to do all we can to help him through all the horrible "firsts" that he is going to encounter in the next 365 days.  One of the beauties of this life is that we are not sent down here to walk it alone; God gives us people to love and to help us during this part of our journey. Sometimes we are ones being helped and sometimes we are called to be ones helping.

In weight loss news it is fairly safe to say there isn't much of that going on this week.  I'm not eating often, but ya'll, can we just discuss English things like cheese, bread, wine...and even a taste of chocolate here and there? I may have to persuade Jack McFarland to give me a three days non-stop kickboxing butt kicking when I get home.