Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.
My words are:
biography ~ cracker ~ joint ~ necessary ~ tombstone
Sometimes it makes perfect sense to let those words sink in, let life happen, and things will fall into place. Happened this month.
As you may remember last spring my aunt passed away way more quickly than expected.
Her boyfriend wanted to arrange a nice memorial but was not doing so right away.
With her, everything was different anyway.
We (her included) didn't know she was sick when we saw her for what was going to be the last time - at her "Stepmother's" funeral in November 2015.
When she was pretty sure she was dying in February 2016, she let her siblings = my Dad know via e-mail and specifically asked that we did not contact her. Instead we were supposed to raise a glass of nice red wine to honor her. Well, I could do that.
So last Saturday we met at her boyfriend's parents' house and hiked to the nearby forest where my aunt used to walk her dog all the time.
We scattered her ashes around the trunk of this oak. Even though there is not going to be a tombstone, if we want to visit, the oak is the place to come back to.
Down in the village church bells were ringing, very fitting.
It was a wonderfully peaceful moment, much less depressing than any church service.
Also we had gotten the chance to recover from the shock with this memorial being so far apart from her actual deceasing.
What's more - for the first and only time - we met her friends!
I was especially glad to get to know her former neighbor who not only lost her husband to cancer, so she knew a thing or two about the needs of someone who is in pain, that lady may also have been the perfect person to sneak my aunt a joint if necessary to ease the suffering.
It is comforting to know somebody who cared and understood was around.
The only things that were missing (in my opinion, and I do have an opinion or ten on what do expect of a funeral, my own, to be specific.) was music and somebody reading her biography - I always like to learn new things about people who have been around longer than me.
Her "in-laws" had prepared a wonderful buffet, and there were not just crackers, mind you, there were half a dozen different sandwiches, cute cups filled with chicken or pasta salad, tomato/mozzarella skewers, dried meats, you name it.
Of course there was also wine - after all that's what my aunt wanted us to have.
Now please go and hug your loved ones and check out my blogger friends' posts:
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