Catch up

Sorry I'm just now getting back to updating here. I was off for a few days for Poppaw's funeral and when I got back to work it was the beginning of the month and I had a lot to catch up on.

I'm so thankful for the family that I am close to. A lot of my family from Dad's side came to the visitation and funeral. I hung out with them most of the time. My mom is not crazy about her side of the family. Don't get me wrong, she has some really great sweet people on her side that she cares for deeply. But there are definitely some crazies. Like the cousin that took it upon herself to inform the nurses at the Hospice House that she was to be notified if/when something happened to Poppaw. Yeah. She really did that. Then there was the cousin from Michigan (who I've only met a hand full of times) that Mom asked to read the obit at the funeral. First he stumbled thru the obit. Hey, mistakes happen and everyone is human ... but he mispronounced his own grandparents names. Really? Then he went against our wishes and attempted to "preach" the funeral he thought his Uncle Mack would want. He went on and on and on ... Mom and I were beyond ticked. During the service Tony turned to me and asked if I wanted him to tackle him. (Of course he was joking!) We had asked Poppaw's pastor to do the message part of the funeral. We had no idea he was going to get up there and take his own artistic liberties with the service. We are still planning on going to Bro. Doke (the pastor at Poppaw's church) and apologizing. But Bro. Doke is a pro and he got up when it was his turn and gave what I thought was an excellent message and tribute to my grandfather. I guess Mom's cousin had his reasons for showing out the way that he did. Poppaw did say that he wanted him to be involved at his funeral so maybe he just thought he was honoring Poppaw's wishes. But we felt it was disrespectful to me and Mom and the other minister involved. THEN he brought a guitar out at the grave site. Let me just say that I love music and so did Poppaw. I'm not against it in any way. But he could've said something to us about it before he whipped it out like that. It just felt like he was trying way too hard and I think he was trying to show off to the family. Mom and I were definitely not impressed. We've pretty much just let it go now but at the time we couldn't help but roll our eyes and shake our heads.

It still seems odd that think that Poppaw's gone. It happened so fast. I don't want this to sound bad but I almost feel guilty that I'm not more upset. I guess I'm comparing my feelings to how I felt when Daddy died. That was the most difficult experience of my life. The years of watching him suffer and worrying about what would happen and realizing that he was never going to bounce back and be the Daddy that I had grown up with and not be there to watch his grandchildren grow up. It hurt and still does to this day. It took Daddy's disease three years to kill him. Poppaw's stroke took three weeks. In comparison, Poppaw's death was sudden.

He was strong even after the stroke hit. In the Hospice House I would hold his hand and he would squeeze mine so hard it hurt. He was 87 and up until a few weeks ago he was up and driving and taking care of himself and planning the yards he would mow during summer. He was having some episodes that he called "weak spells". Mom and I now think that they could've been mini-strokes. But my Poppaw had a great long life. He loved and was loved. He was faithful to his church and a hard worker. If you met him once you remembered him. He never met a stranger. There will never be another man like him and we miss him already.

We're trying to get back to a normal routine. Mom's watching Darby every day again and I'm back at work. Now we are just trying to get over our allergies. Darby and Mom both went to the doctor on Monday and I've been taking some over the counter stuff that is helping but is making me loose my voice. That's pretty rough when a majority of your day is spent talking to folks on the phone. I've put the other gals in the office on phone duty but they are only part timers and we have multiple lines. It's a struggle to make someone on a cell phone hear you when you can barely speak above a whisper. I'm getting better so I guess that's the important thing. Darby is still coughing and a little snotty but she hasn't run a fever. If she isn't better by Monday I think we'll take her back to the Doc. I just don't like her having so much congestion like that.

So... that's the latest update. I know I've been slacking on the blog stuff but hopefully things will slow down next week and I can post more often. Have a good weekend y'all!