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Aug. 1st, 2006 07:47 pmGoing to a funeral and graveside service is a great reminder of the importance of friends and family.
For me, friends are more important than family because experience has taught that I can trust friends for love and support more than I can family; this is something difficult that my single child-free friends and I struggle with (including S, whose mother was buried today). Will we still be around supporting each other? Hmm. Hard to say, and unnerving. No one wants to be that person left with no mourners at the end of the life.
S. is one of my ICE contacts [in case of emergency] and vice versa, since her sibling lives 3,000 miles away.
In her remarks during the service, S. said, "One of the things I'll take away from my mother is that I always knew that she loved and supported me. She would always light up when she saw me. Something that I wish as a legacy for everyone is that you, too, have someone in your life who lights up every time they see you."
My friend has - had? no, has - the most solid, loving, supportive, functional family I've ever met. In conversations with my 'good' sister, we'd ask, What would S's family do? What did they say? How did they deal with each other? It's a revelation for both of us, always. And so, one way that Pearl M has touched my life.
I think of S's parents every day also because they were kind enough to give me some of their posessions when they sold the large family house a few years ago: the mantle clock, in particular, gives me a warm feeling, partly because I've been trying to find my grandparents' mantle clock for years, unsuccessfully, to ask if I can have it. I have someone else's, but ... anyway, I love it, and think of Pearl and HM fondly every time I look at it. I have an extra chair that has become Shoo's favorite chair (with the addition of a towel), and two jade plants that I started from pieces that broke off while helping S move her parents' stuff out of the family home pre-sale.
Rest in peace Pearl M., and thank you.
For me, friends are more important than family because experience has taught that I can trust friends for love and support more than I can family; this is something difficult that my single child-free friends and I struggle with (including S, whose mother was buried today). Will we still be around supporting each other? Hmm. Hard to say, and unnerving. No one wants to be that person left with no mourners at the end of the life.
S. is one of my ICE contacts [in case of emergency] and vice versa, since her sibling lives 3,000 miles away.
In her remarks during the service, S. said, "One of the things I'll take away from my mother is that I always knew that she loved and supported me. She would always light up when she saw me. Something that I wish as a legacy for everyone is that you, too, have someone in your life who lights up every time they see you."
My friend has - had? no, has - the most solid, loving, supportive, functional family I've ever met. In conversations with my 'good' sister, we'd ask, What would S's family do? What did they say? How did they deal with each other? It's a revelation for both of us, always. And so, one way that Pearl M has touched my life.
I think of S's parents every day also because they were kind enough to give me some of their posessions when they sold the large family house a few years ago: the mantle clock, in particular, gives me a warm feeling, partly because I've been trying to find my grandparents' mantle clock for years, unsuccessfully, to ask if I can have it. I have someone else's, but ... anyway, I love it, and think of Pearl and HM fondly every time I look at it. I have an extra chair that has become Shoo's favorite chair (with the addition of a towel), and two jade plants that I started from pieces that broke off while helping S move her parents' stuff out of the family home pre-sale.
Rest in peace Pearl M., and thank you.