We've just returned from our trip to the East Coast. After having to change our clocks on Saturday night for Daylight Savings and then having to adjust them to the Eastern Time Zone on Sunday, we decided that we may reconsider traveling that direction for Daylight Savings Weekend in the future!!
Anyhow... we started off the week in Monticello where Ray C. and the children had a wonderful time hanging out with family! My parents came down to get me so I could go to my grandfather's house for a few days to help them clean it up! We were able to get rid of a lot of empty boxes and papers from 15 years ago that he didn't care about having anymore! (By the way, he approved of everything!)
After a full day of cleaning and a good 8 hours of sleep, my aunt called early Wednesday morning to say that my uncle had died of a heart attack. My mother and grandfather were devastated, but we know God had a hand in the timing with us already being there for the news and Papa not being by himself.
So, we traveled to St. Simons Island, GA for all of the funeral arrangements and stayed there the remainder of the week in a condo that a friend graciously loaned us. Ray C. and the kids met us on the island, and we were able to enjoy being with family in a different situation than we had planned.
The children were amazing! They did so much "adult stuff" the whole week with great attitudes. They were actually very interested in the whole death process. We allowed them to see Uncle "T" in the casket, and they were not afraid at all. Chase kept touching him to be sure he really died. He was very confused about how he could die but still be here. We had some great conversations about death and souls.
Chase announced on Saturday morning that he couldn't wait to bury Uncle "T". When I asked why, he just shrugged his shoulders and said "cause I've never done it." My mom and I looked at each other and, at the same time, said to him, "We're not going to bury him ourselves, you know!" He actually thought we were going to dig the hole!
The kids sat through the funeral and the burial service and were excited to see that Grandaddy was the preacher for a change! Jean asked my dad to do the service because Uncle "T" thought so much of him. In fact, he said that he was one of three of the most incredible men he'd known in his life!
The entire week was a celebration of Uncle "T"'s life - exactly the way he would have wanted it!
We surprised her at work when I showed up wearing a sandwich board announcing her birthday and loaded with pictures of her as a child! We sang Happy Birthday to her in the lobby of the doctors office and even offered some of her cake to the patients!!
When she returned home from work, we went out to eat at The Last Resort - a fabulous Athens restaurant - where her friends Beau and Angie joined us as a surprise to her!
