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Dear Departed

My last living grandparent passed away on September 30. His obituary is here. I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Pennsylvania with my children, husband, father, step-mom, and sister, and spend time with members of my dad's family that I hadn't seen in three years. I also got to do a reading at Grandpa Bob's funeral. The sweetest moment of the whole trip for me, besides hearing people say how much I looked like my grandma Anne, was when I finished the first reading, at the front of the church my grandparents were married in, and read the thanks to the lord, and my darling daughter replied "Thank you, Mama!" She doesn't know the norms of the Catholic mass but she is learning manners.

Both kids did pretty well with the long days of traveling, thanks in large part to lots of helping hands from my family. It was so special to spend time in the place my grandparents were from and see where they are buried. We stayed in a really nice hotel, with a good free breakfast, and Henry and Stella both slept well. Really, it couldn't have gone any better. But still, it was such a great feeling to come home and sleep in our own beds and have our routine again. I am absolutely loving being home with my children this year, with the odd day of work here and there. Life keeps changing, we goodbye to those that depart, but life is good.

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