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The rest of that Sunday is kind of a blur...my sister and I talked about the gathering for mom and talked about how hard it was going to be on my dad to see his family... how emotional it would be for him to see his mother and siblings, including in-laws....so we decided that we should invite them to the house before the church gathering for lunch... to give dad the chance to unite with them privately. Without asking dad, we called one of our aunts and told her of our plan, which she was fully behind... we later told dad of our actions and he didn't say too much... but I think in some ways he was relieved... I remember Dad going to bed that night, his voice cracking as he said good night to my sister and I and thanked us for our help that day...another gift my parents gave us and each other, always letting each other know how much they appreciate things... always saying please and thank you... Dad had nothing to thank us for... he did amazing...he was strong...

Monday came... and with it some anticipation... of the gathering to be held Tuesday, the luncheon beforehand, plus Monday's arrival of my brother in law, nephews, and Sara... My brother in law and nephews arrived around 1:30 in the afternoon and Sara arrived not long after... Sis and her boys went for a walk to give her a chance to talk with her husband and to let her kids have a way to expend some energy. When Sara arrived, she and I headed to the grocery store to get food for Tuesday... I was so thankful to have her with me... going to the grocery store in a small town means seeing so many people who know you... and in this case, knew my mom had died... so having Sara there to help keep me calm and help me locate things we needed was a huge help... which for the record... grocery shopping in a store where you don't know where everything is can be very overwhelming after the death of a loved one... fewer people approached me than I expected, but the few that did was enough.

We returned to my parents' house...do I now say my dad's house? I'm not sure of what I should call it now... but that will come I suppose... not long after we got to the house, the hospital bed company arrived to take the bed... thank goodness... I was so happy to see that thing go... as they were leaving one of my best friends, Todd, came out to visit. Todd was my best friend in high school, when he got married I stood up with him as his best person... and while our contact has not been regular over the years, we are still close... and it meant a lot that he came to the house... I know it wasn't an easy visit for him... he knew my parents well and together we made my mom laugh... He and Sara and I headed out on the back deck and visited... they just listened to me really... droning on and on about who knows what... One of my parents' friends dropped off dinner, lasagna, salad, and garlic bread... Todd left after a while...Sara and I started getting food ready for the next day... and my nephews asked me to go outside with them for a while... so Sara and I went outside with the boys... who just wanted to explore the back yard... I helped them climb a tree and knew they were still pretty hyper... they had spent a lot of time trapped in the care in the previous week... travelling from their home to their other grandparents house in western NY, then back to their house, then up to Maine... so I had an idea to get them a little tired... the back yard was covered with pinecones... and dad had said it would take some time to get rid of all of them, so I decided to pay my nephews to dispose of them... so... I set it up that I would time them for 10 minutes... and during that time they had to throw as many pinecones into the woods as possible... for every pinecone that made it into the woods would be worth 2 cents... They loved the idea! Before starting they asked questions about how many cones they could carry at once and the rule was as many as they could handle... they also wanted to know how I was going to keep track of how many they each had thrown, and the answer was easy... I said, they needed to yell out their total number as they threw them into the woods and as a teacher I was able to easily keep track of such things... (wink wink) so their totals would be easily tracked.... so I lined them all up and yelled, "GO!" and they did... running back and forth back and forth heaving the pinecones into the woods. I admit that I didn't keep exact time... but after a while I was laughing so hard...my middle nephew wiped out a few times, slipping on the leaves but it didn't stop him... I called up to the house and told my sister to get dad to the window to see the craziness, not knowing they were all already watching wondering what was going on... After time was up (or close to up...) we headed inside and I had to pay up... these kids wanted the cash and wanted it right then... I think that round cost me between six and seven dollars...it was fun... After dinner we headed out for round two of the pinecone round up... this time Auntie was smarter... I paid by the bagful... and there was a minimum requirement of 15 pinecones per bag (which earned 5 cents), bags containing 25 pinecones were worth 10 cents... and any bagful that was acquired furthest from the woods earned a 2 cent bonus... This time dad came outside with us...again the kids went nuts, running back and forth collecting and dumping the pinecones... although at one point the youngest took a break to throw the bag in the air a few times and watched it fall slowly... but they did amazing... hundreds of pinecones were tossed into the woods. And dad laughed at the sight of them... it was nice to hear him laugh... Fortunately for me, this method was a lot more economical... however my nephews realized less work meant less money... and they begged for round three but wanted to negotiate the terms... smart kids... too bad we didn't get time for round three...

So in the midst of life being turned upside down... kids want to be kids... and mom would have loved it...