Catching up

There are 9 kids feeding off each other in the other room. There are a couple of fathers glued to the TV removing themselves from reality (and consequently the kids). Tons of people I haven't seen in years came to the viewing last night at the funeral home. It was a time of catching up with people, hearing about the hurts in others' lives, figuring how many kids we all have and whether or not we were claiming them as our own last night. One friend brought some of the food supplied for last night's dinner. My mom babysat her when we were little. She was just enough older than me that she babysat me. She came along and knew grandpa only by "grandpa" and couldn't even remember his real name. She is suffering from cancer. It started in her breasts and has spread to her bones. But she is so incredibly upbeat. She laughed with me and comforted me in the midst of her own struggles. I introduced my old tennis coach to my kids. This actually worked to my benefit as the kids now believe that I placed in State tennis before being a mom. I was talking to people and out of the corner of my eye I saw Lucy rip through the room screaming with glee and then taking necklaces that they found from the 80's and breaking the strings allowing them to throw beads at people. I kept having to tell Elizabeth to give Grandpa a break (yes, he was embalmed in a casket) because she kept going over to him and caressing his face and kissing him. It was a sweet time of remembering and teaching the kids about death. Although Lucy still was running around unteachable but nevertheless the other kids "got it". The week has been crazy. If feels as though weeks have passed since the phone call came in just before lunch on Wednesday. Today we'll be saying our last goodbyes, burying a generation of memories along with my grandfather.