Funeral #2

It has been quite a while since I was a mourner at a funeral, and now I've been at two in less than a week. This one was quite different from last Friday's though - for one thing it was a family funeral. My Aunt Rella died on Sunday at age 85. (Aunt Aurella, actually, but she'll always be Aunt Rella to me, like I'll always be Tina to most of my nieces and nephews.)

Aunt Rella was my Dad's baby sister - youngest of nine children. Now there are three remaining: Dad and two more younger sisters. Dad & Aunt Rella were always very close, and she was also my godmother. She was also my favorite aunt for a very long time.

The funeral was Wednesday morning, so I went home on Tuesday. That night was such a good night - like opening a treasure chest as Dad was in fine storytelling form. I'm going to have to write a whole blog entry of Dad's stories to try to remember them as good as I can, but I wanted to write some funeral and family thoughts first.

We really lost Aunt Rella a very long time ago. The memories I want to keep of her were the fun-loving, family-oriented, always-laughing Aunt Rella. My cousin Wes described her as the "sparkplug" at family gatherings, and that fits. She and Uncle Clarence moved to Arkansas when I was in high school, and after he died she remarried a man she met there. It was really then that we lost Aunt Rella. John was one mean bastard, and Aunt Rella was never the same after him. He killed her spirit, and damn near killed her physically too.

So it was the Aunt Rella of my youth that I went to mourn. And it was the family connections that still remain strong that I went to celebrate. It was really serendipitous that cousin Myrna was visiting from California during this time, and so I got to catch up a little with her. We discovered that we were both Aunt Rella's goddaughters, which seems very appropriate. She said that she told Allen and David how much she appreciated what Aunt Rella taught her about being "avant garde" and being her true self. I laughed and told Myrna "I learned that from YOU." Funny how life works out as it should somehow.

It was a very good visit home. The only bad thing was my Dad's face! He took a tumble over a curb in a wheelchair at the nursing home when visiting Aunt Rella on Saturday before she died, landing on his face and shoulder. We are incredibly thankful there was no damage beyond the incredible bruising of his face (it has been described as looking like he is covered with soot, wearing a Halloween mask, or full WWE wrestler make-up.) CAT scans turned out good, but it was still scary to think of what could have happened. I think the close call may have led to the story telling though - getting as many stories in as he can before he dies. But as I said, that's a topic for the next blog entry.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the feeling of peace that came over me as I was driving back yesterday. Aunt Rella is at rest, my family is strong, and I know a little more again about why I am who I am. All's good.