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Mar. 9th, 2008 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
besubversiveStrange, a whole house full of laughing, playing cousins when everything is supposed to be so sad. The joy of children almost makes death feel impossible. I guess we, as a family, could have been more subdued and solemn, but my uncle thought it was better that Christian and Carson be kept busy with paintball and movies and home improvement projects. And the love of a bushel of kin.
While the funeral procession idled in front of the house, I saw Tim and his two boys standing on the front porch. They were carrying Shelia's portrait, taken on her wedding day. Christian and Carson leaned against one another and gazed at her face. Tim had an arm around each.
There were 800 or so people at the funeral. I only learned this later, after we were back at the house. The church was full, sure, but apparently so many people had come, so many had been touched by Shelia's joy and generosity and faith and goodness, that people were willing to sit or stand in the hallways under the church and just listen. They set up monitors in the pastor's office, in the Sunday School room, in the Fellowship Hall, in the coat closet. People stood outside, even. It was a much finer testament to what she gave than any eulogy could have been.
While the funeral procession idled in front of the house, I saw Tim and his two boys standing on the front porch. They were carrying Shelia's portrait, taken on her wedding day. Christian and Carson leaned against one another and gazed at her face. Tim had an arm around each.
There were 800 or so people at the funeral. I only learned this later, after we were back at the house. The church was full, sure, but apparently so many people had come, so many had been touched by Shelia's joy and generosity and faith and goodness, that people were willing to sit or stand in the hallways under the church and just listen. They set up monitors in the pastor's office, in the Sunday School room, in the Fellowship Hall, in the coat closet. People stood outside, even. It was a much finer testament to what she gave than any eulogy could have been.
