My mother died last Monday. It was time. An infection had taken over her body and she died peacefully in her sleep. Since then it's been a whirlwind of activities and emotions filling every minute. I will be processing this for a long time, but today I've been thinking about one thing in particular. My mother gave us the final gift of letting us have a service for her.
It seems that it is becoming more the trend these days to not have a funeral or memorial service for the deceased. I can understand some of the reasons for this: expense, privacy, emotion, etc. But that was not my mother's request. Funerals were a part of her entire life and in death we honored her with one.
My mother did not have a service planned as some people do, but we knew what she wanted from comments over the years along with the things she chose for our father. We planned a short service that was lead by one of her friends from church. Each song had a meaning as well as each reading. I gave a 10 minute eulogy of her life that I actually made it through.
The service was upbeat, positive, and was about her. Just what we wanted and just what she would have wanted. So among the tears, I think back on her send off and I smile. Thank you, Mother, for letting us honor you in this one final way.
