Week 22 Day 5: Funeral arrangements

Gavin did not end up going to the funeral service. He used up his morning nap time crying and by the time we would have needed to leave for the funeral he and Stacy were both quite frazzled. Needless to say, the idea of trying to get Gavin to sit quietly through an Episcopal church service had seemed challenging enough before he pulled his no-nap baby stunt. Not that I can blame him. When I was a kid I hated going to church and would do just about anything to get out of it. Still, it would have been nice to have Stacy there next to me.

In the program (is that what it's called?) there was a bio of my grandpa that listed his hobbies and worklife and info about his family. The second to last sentence was, "He recently was blessed with a great grandson, Gavin." I like this very much.

Stacy and Gavin did come to the luncheon afterward, which was also at the church. After the service everyone was so sad and lot of people were crying and though I didn't cry very much it was still sad times all around. So when I saw Gavin and Stacy I really lit up. I was actually in another part of the church trying to call her because I didn't think she'd come and when I finally gave up and went over to where I'd left my family there they were. A miracle, indeed.

Gavin was adorable and served to make people smile just like he did at the viewing. Stacy had him dressed in his navy blue dress pants and a navy blue plaid button down shirt. He looked very sharp. Unfortunately, while I was eating lunch with him on my lap he peed his pants. This shouldn't have been a problem since he pees his pants all day long, but for some reason there was a wardrobe malfunction that resulted in damp pants on his part. I didn't notice at first and at one point I handed him over to Stacy and a couple minutes later felt like the front of my pants were a little damp. Sure enough there was pee on my pants and it wasn't mine. Pee that wasn't mine was also now on Stacy's skirt. Thankfully Stacy and I did not have sartorial casualties as a result, but Gavin needed a costume and a diaper change stat. Unfortunately, the only auxiliary pants we had for him to change into was a pair of grey sweatpants. Classy. Totally the look we were going for. Later my mom was showing him off to friends and relatives and I totally wanted to butt in and say, "We did not dress him in sweatpants for a funeral. He peed through his slacks. These are his emergency pants." I somehow managed to refrain.

After the lunch Stacy took Gavin home and I went with my sisters to the cemetery where there was a military honors service for both my grandpa and my grandma. She died in 2004 and for whatever reason there wasn't a military service then even though she was in the Navy. Grandpa was a marine. Even though I am a peacenik, the whole thing was very moving. And thankfully the marines and the naval officers present only had to fold their flags once. At my Grandpa Mitch's funeral years ago the two officers folded the flag and unfolded it and folded it again so many times that it took awhile before I realized that they weren't enacting some kind of OCD military ritual, they were messing it up. In fact, while they did finally present the flag to my aunt, they went up to her after the funeral and asked if they could please fold it again because they did not feel it had yet been done right. For all I know they ended up being there all night.

After the funeral we went to my grandpa's house where the family gathered and many people drank. Gavin and Stacy joined me once again and Gavin repeated his one-man cuteness show. He is a consummate professional. Granted, he has an early bedtime so we couldn't stay late, but by then I was exhausted myself. And I expect to be exhausted for quite some time.