"Family Reunion"

Everyone came together for my grandma's funeral this past week. It was actually a really nice service. The people who spoke about my grandma had some great memories to share, and it was beautiful to see the legacy she'd left behind with her life. The pastor actually shared how he was reading the 23rd Psalm to my grandma (her favorite Psalm) one day. She appeared to be sleeping, and had been very unresponsive for days. However, as soon as he read the first line of the Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd", she opened her eyes and said, "Yes, He sure is." I'd been holding it together fairly well up to this point, but as soon as he said that, the tears broke loose once again. (Good thing I'd brought some tissues along!)

Due to all the family coming together, the funeral ended up being somewhat of a reunion. I'm not that close to my extended family, but I absolutely LOVE hearing when my aunts and uncles share stories from their lives. They talked about WWII and how they had to have food stamps and ration certain supplies. My uncle shared about how he dated this woman for 7 years (seems practically impossible, right?) and then was stationed over in England, asked her to come with, and she refused. So, he ended up meeting my aunt and marrying her instead! I asked my mom if there were any men in her life that could've ended up being my dad and she told me the following:
There was a guy she was dating and I guess was pretty serious about, but there was one catch: he worked at a funeral home, and his job was transporting the bodies. To make matters worse, occasionally he would pick her up for dates in his hearse, WITH THE DEAD BODIES IN THE BACK OF THE CAR! He figured he might as well drop the body off at whatever funeral home he needed to on the way to their date. How resourceful of him! Well, he picked my mom up once again for a date in, of course, his hearse! They went out, (the whole time the body was hitting my mom in the back of the head as they drove) and my mom finally couldn't take it any more! She broke things off with him (yea mom!) and the rest is history. Just think...I could've had a dad who drove me to school each morning in his hearse! (Just as a side note, I think she picked the right one with my dad :) What a great story! It's so interesting to hear about the lives of people BEFORE they were who I know them to be!
You never know what you just might learn about someone that you never thought possible.