Sunday, December 18, 2011

After Mamaw's Funeral

Celebrating Mamaw's Life
Front, from the left, are the great-grands of my mother (Annette Carpenter), Luke, Nate, Walker, Molly Kate, Stella, and Charlie Skupien. Back row are her grandchildren, Walt Skupien, Becky (Rebecca Annette), Matthew and Amanda Carpenter, and Jeremy Skupien.


At the fellowship luncheon after my mother's funeral Saturday, Dec. 17,  my brother thought to capture the rare opportunity when all Mother's grandchildren and great-grandchildren were in the same town at the same time. 


My brother and his family are en route home to Virginia today so I haven't seen his photos. But daughter-in-law Katie shared the one above. She also used it as her new header pix on her blog, the Daily Skup


Thanks, Katie! Thanks, Mike, for instigating the photo session. And thanks to Main Street Baptist Church for organizing and providing the meal. And thanks to all those generous cooks from the Main Street family and some from other churches, too, who prepared delicious dishes. As we broke bread with friends and relatives, we relaxed in the chance to laugh, cry and celebrate Mother's life together.


Grandson Nate asked me, "Nana, are you sad?"


I responded with a fairly incoherent "Yes, but I am happy, too." Fortunately, his dad, our son Walt, was on hand to translate. 


Thanks, too, for well wishes, however they arrived, from friends, relatives and sympathetic blogging friends new and long standing.  God bless!  

7 comments:

  1. What a lovely picture, and amazing that you all look so happy, one would never guess it was taken at a funeral. Blessings and peace to you, my friend. I recently lost my mom at just this time of the year, so I know!

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  2. The photo of your beautiful family, the offspring of your wonderful mother, is just wonderful. Funerals can be such a mixed blessing. Family gathers, and that is a great thing. I also am send thoughts of peace and love.

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  3. so glad you thought to grab a shot of all of them together, a wonderful beautiful family and will bring memories in the future.

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  4. What a wonderful testament to your mother, to see all those people gathered and to see such radiance from them. That's the kind of evidence of my life that I want to leave behind. I've got the five grandchildren, but I'm going to have to stick around a lot longer to earn those great-grands! You've already depicted your mother as a lovely woman. I hope you sometimes see her in front of you again in the gesture of a child, hear her in the measure of a favorite song or in a familiar laugh, smell her home when baking familiar treats.

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  5. Beautiful family and thanks for sharing.

    I think it is important to remember to be happy when someone departs this life. Thanks for reminding me.

    When my Mom died, I laid my hand on her cheek and felt the peace that pasees all understanding. Dianne

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  6. What a lovely family. I'm so glad someone took the time to gather the memories.
    It sounds like you had a warm and tender service for your Mother. It must have felt like Hugs all over.

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