Got home two hours ago from the 12 hour trip to Provo for the funeral. Another emotional day. The service was wonderful; Ken gave a beautiful tribute to Mom and a very nice life sketch. He's an excellent speaker. Then two nieces, Janelle and Kadee, sang a nice song, "I walked today where Jesus walked," I spoke for about 10 minutes on things my mother has taught me; the granddaughters (nearly all of them) sang, "Come Thou Fount," a very sweet song and they did a beautiful job; then Grant gave a talk about the atonement and how the SAvior makes it possible to return to Him and to be together as a family. Carolyn had put together a slide slow of mom's life, to music, which was very nice and people really enjoyed viewing that before the funeral started.
We had a lot of family there, all Mom and Dad's kids; their spouses, and nearly all the Utah grandkids were there, along with mom's sister, brother, and a sister-in-law; and friends also. The room was filled with people she had touched in some way or other.
It was again, a beautiful ceremony, yet so sad too. I'm glad I have no doubt there is life after this and I know I'll see my parents and family members again. That adds so much peace.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I would be a little surprised if anyone ever reads this, but oh well. I just thought I'd share this
anyway. And I hope my mom doesn't mind me sharing these thoughts.
See I guess somehow, it's been a bit surprising to me how affected my mom was by her mother's passing. I knew she'd be sad, I mean anyone would be heartbroken to lose their mother. But to me it just kinda seemed like Grandma's time to go, and I was just happy for the connections that I did have with her earlier in life, and I guess it was a bit unexpected that she really felt that loss so bitterly. I don't why it surprised me; it shouldn't have. But it did.
Well the other day my family got onto the topic of Grandma Wyler's relationship with her family. Someone asked my mom if, even though it was still hard, if she thought it was easier to deal with her mother's passing than her father's, or something like that. I don't remember the exact context.
She said that one thing that was really hard to deal with, or that she missed, was that she could always call up her mother and talk to her about things. I have no idea to what extend Grandma offered useful advice, but maybe for the first time it occurred to me just how much of a support my Grandmother really was to my mother.
I'm not describing my thoughts very well here, but I'll just get to the point anyway.
Something occurred to me just then, then gave me a lot of hope and a lot of gratitude for the gospel and for the doctrine of Eternal Life. I realized that our relationships in this life are really just superficial compared to the relationships and communication we can have with each other later. I mean, if my mother and her mother never had a REALLY close relationship, or if in any way my mother felt that she would have liked a closer relationship with her mom, that is not only possible and even likely -- it is almost inevitable.
Because someday, my mom and her mother -- two very good and wonderful women, Daughters in Zion -- will be reunited. And at that time, there will be no long distance phone charges, and no time restrictions, and any mental illness or fears or feelings of inadequacy that may have hampered Grandma's ability to connect with people will be swept away. Instead they will have something magnificent in common -- the joy of Eternal Life. And they will be able to share that and get to know each other better for the rest of Eternity, learn how to understand each other, and become friends as well as family.
So I guess what I'm saying is, our relationships in this life, or rather the challenges that make them so difficult, need not concern us too deeply. All we need to do in this life, is to LOVE each other. To seek to understand where we can, to be there for each other how we can, and to just do the best we can to remain close -- then leave the rest to the Lord. We will all have challenges in relating to and communicating with and understanding and feeling close to each other at time, and to various degrees, but that need not cause us to fear or regret those areas where we struggle to see eye to eye.
Someday, all those things will be worked out for us, and any and all relationships that mean something to us can and will be of unfathomable value to us in the Life to come, so long as we strive to live worthy.
I don't know if any of this has made sense or not. Please forgive me if anything I've said has offended or if I've touched on anything personal or sensitive or disagreeable.
I just want you all to know -- all of you who are family or care about our family -- that I love you, and look forward with great hope and joy to the day when we can sit down together and have a good long talk and really get to know each other for the first time.
Post a Comment