July 12th, 2016

I mentioned that it's been kind of a roller-coaster summer, including a lot of family matters. Last Tuesday, my great-grandmother passed away at 97 years of age. I certainly did not know her as well as some, but I do know I was fortunate to have a great-grandmother in my life for so many years. We attended the visitation last night, and the funeral was this morning.

Here I am after the fact, still in black.

While my family (my mother and grandmother in particular) grieve, I will honor her in my own way as best I can. I don't have much space in my room for an ancestor altar, but I set aside a little area next to my working altar in which to display some items I've gathered together.

From left to right, I have first a photograph from one of my great-grandma's Christmas parties. I don't happen to have a photo of her personally, but her Christmas parties were always special to her as a way to get the whole family together. Then I have the programs from the funeral and the visitation, an Ammonite fossil because their spiral shape is associated with life and eternity, and a pocket watch which belonged to my great-grandpa, who I never knew seeing as he passed away before I was born. I also have a candle.

Perhaps it's sentimental of me, but when we arrived at the cemetery for the funeral, there was a pair of mourning doves sitting on a telephone pole across from the gate, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was a sign that great-grandma and great-grandpa were together and happy again.