Live from Lyngby

Well, I'm back in the States.  Made it back yesterday for the wake.  Just in time because I ended up spending 5 hours in the Newark Airport.  Today was the funeral.  Got to be a pallbearer and a reader.

It was strange.  As much (or as little) as I ended up crying, it was difficult to really stay sad for long.  Times like these that are full of such sadness always seem to bring about a certain level of joy in their wake.  Seeing my family for the first time in four months is of course a joyous occasion but really everyone had a wonderful demeanor about them.  It was tough for my grandfather.  At the end it was really tough.  I don't know how long he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I'd say three years but I usually underestimate things like this because of how fast time always seems to go.  Still, there was such a great turnout and when you see all the people whose lives he had touched in one way or another it is really quite difficult to be sad for him.

The thing that really got me, I mean really got me the most was when Tom, the eulogist who is a great friend of the family, said that he envisioned Grandpere showing up and being greeted by his son (my father) Jamie and just sitting there and looking down upon all of us and smiling before my father took him off to show him the ropes.  This got me to thinking a bit more and gave me the confidence and calming notion that if I die tomorrow, it would be okay because waiting for me in heaven would be three of my greatest influences and the best people I know, my father, my grandfather, and one of my best friend's Tony and how it couldn't possibly be that bad if I could just hang out with them all day and catch up and sit at the beach or climb some mountains or do whatever people do in heaven that is completely free of pain and full of joy.  And yea, this is when I started to cry, and yea, they were tears not of fear or sorrow but of joy because I know it couldn't possibly be that bad where they are and my grandfather couldn't possibly be doing worse off than he was at the end of his life here.

After the service he received a veterans burial with a flag and TAPS just like his son before him.  It really was a pleasant event, if I'm allowed to say so.

We went back to my cousins' house afterwards and shared some stories and played some video games.  

Now we have sandwiches for the next week.  Not so bad.

T1 + T2 = Together?!?!?  Even Grandpere's laughing...