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Funeral

We were told to be back at 9 for more visitation and then the service was at 11. We managed to get there about 20 after. We were just all so tired and w/Mat reading and the long day ahead, we opted to let the boys sleep a little bit.

I specifically asked my mom to be at hte funeral home at TEN to watch the boy and work w/Mat on his reading. We had been working w/him since they picked it and he had it down, but I wasn't sure how worked up he was going to be. His cousins had gotten him pretty worked up the night before. FIL is not handling this well at all and some kind, but misguided ppl had made some comments that I needed to correct. Thankfully Mat had just studied a unit on angels and I was able to use that to build from and we talked about how God created us to praise and worship Him adn that gma was now doing that and  so very, very happy and painfree. So I told mom to keep an eye on him and make sure that he didnt' get worked up. We also told him that he had to sit between Dh adn I before his reading and that he could sit w/his cousins after that.

So we greeted lots more ppl and then headed over for the funeral. As previously mentioned, I am NOT Catholic and how it wound up that *I*, the clueless protestant, was right behind the casket is beyond me, but Father is great in these types of situations and thankfully by then the boys had figured out that we just were going w/the flow so it was fine.

Mat was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He did an AWESOME job reading! Dh asked him during hte service if he wanted him to go up w/him and Mat said no. You'd have thought Mat had done that 100 times! Even his tone and flexion (Sp?) were great!  He's done some group speaking so it wasn't entirely new, but still. A neice (Mat's age) also sang a solo (the only hymn taht they knew MIL wanted, but not very many ppl knew it so it worked out great) and she did an AWESOME job as well!

They service itself was soooooooooooo nice. It all screamed MIL, which is what you want. Not to mention that I LOVE when the clergy really KNOW the deceased!

And something that Joey said was the theme of the homily (sermon)!!!!!!!!!!! At  first FIL was driving me nuts telling everyoen that Joey told him taht it was OK to die (a conversation taht *I* had had w/Joey!LOL).  FIL drew great comfort from this and had told Fr about it and so that was the theme!  So between Fr knowing MIL and how it all came out, it was wonderful. There were actually FOUR priests at the service. One was asked and the other three thought so much of MIL that THEY asked to officiate!

It was very very hot that day, but there was a very strong wind that while did NOTHING for your hair, it did keep you from sweltering. So the graveside service was nice.

Then back to the hall for the funeral dinner. They  had underestimated the number of ppl. Everyone got food, but there was NOTHING to speak of to take back to the house! They were frantically setting up more place settings for ppl, too.

And lots of ppl came up and commented on what a great job Mat did! Of course, it's obvious that I'm his mom (or relation) since we are the only ones w/flaming red hair!LOL One group asked me if I taught him everything I know. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say so I said that yes, since I homeschool, I did. They were floored! Apparently HSled children, by this age, aren't supposed to know how to read or speak in public!ROTFL!

It all just spoke so highly of what ppl thought of MIL and that was very comforting to FIL and sibs.

And as a funny, a bunch of the nephews (grown men) got shirts nad ripped the sleeves off like FIL does on the farm and came parading out.;) He thought that was so funny!

Then back to the house where ALL (over 100) the familly came. I think the last person left at 10????? It was a long, but wonderful day.