Saying Goodbye

It was time to say goodbye.

My grandma loved flowers. She loved gardening. She won an honorable mention for the traffic circle on her block that she planted and maintained.

From the eulogy: “After George passed away Helen kept herself busy. She learned to paint, write and tended her flower gardens, including the garden she planted on the traffic circle in front of her house. She was invited to city hall one year when her traffic circle won an honorable mention in the city-wide traffic circle gardening contest.” It was fitting that there were so many beautiful flowers at her funeral. She would have really loved all those flowers, especially the roses.

I drove up to Seattle on a Monday morning and that evening there was the rosary service at the funeral home in Fremont. It was unusually hot for Seattle. (And rainy the morning of the funeral.)

Most of the family was able to travel and attend the funeral, and it was so nice to see everyone and see old friends we haven’t seen in so long! Some, very very many years! My brother and his wife flew up from California and it was so nice to spend time with them. I hadn’t seen them since our trip to Hawaii almost 2 years ago now.

The funeral was the next morning at the church she attended for the majority of her life. From the eulogy: “She lived in the same house for over 60 years, 3 block from here, and was a member of this parish. She walked to this church to attend daily mass until her knees finally gave out.”

The service was beautiful.

My grandma’s nephew (her sister’s son) gave the eulogy and it was absolutely perfect. Her grandsons and one granddaughter were the pall bearers.

After the church we went to the cemetery for the burial. And then family friends offered to host a little party at their house for us to gather. It was so nice and thoughtful. And it was nice to catch up with family.

It’s hard to find words to express how I feel. There’s a lot of sadness and grief, even though this was expected. I mean, she was almost 100 years old. No one lives forever- but it’s not easy.

Grammy would have approved of the day. It was emotional and hard, but lovely, and she’s buried with my grandpa now.