Mom's Celebration of Life Service

Well, finally I am posting pictures of my Mom's Celebration of Life pictures. It felt kinda weird taking the pictures, but ya know- Funeral services are memory makers. All the family is there, kids are still cute and fun and in reality- Life does go on. We kept saying that Mom would have loved it. We had the service at her church where my family had gone for nearly 20 years (note: the church that we knew was torn down and a new church built in a new location- none of us had ever gone to the new location (we converted to Catholicism and my Mom had moved kinda far away), but she still kept her membership and tithed there and her friends were still there).


We just did a memory table.

Those are my two girls by the table.

My sister, Tammy and our friend, Stacey and her boyfriend.

 

The hubs in the blue shirt talking to my brother in law and sister in law.

My dad, sitting (he and my mom hadn't been married in over 40 years, but he gave a very sweet and funny remembrance speech). To the left is my former step-mother and step-sister. I was happy they were there. My brother in law to the right.

My daughter and her hubby's grandmother (my 2 grands' other great grandmother).

Very nice cake from Publix (they do the best in our area, I think!!)

I have always loved photography and I am so thankful for it!!

After the service, we all went back to  my house for some family time. It was wonderful to have everyone there. Brother in law, Wayne, facing on the left, my sister, Kristina and my dad on the right.

My nephew, Ali with my grandson, Jaxen.

The kids had a good time playing in the yard and I was proud of my dogs- they behaved very well with all the company.

My sister, Tammy crocheting.

The Hubs on the left and Brother in law, Keith on the right.

My sister and my niece.

My nephew and great nephews.

It is incredible how much I miss my Mom- I spent a lot of time with her in her last days, and I am happy I was there when she passed. Time gets away and we all get busy. I regret terribly not seeing her more before she was sick. Mother's Day was pretty difficult this year- all the ads for weeks ahead- it was hard.
Us girls and one of the boys went out for lunch the day before Mothers Day to her favorite spot that we took her to in Tarpon Springs on the Sponge Docks and had a beautiful lunch in these pics.

 I think we will  make it an annual event. (That's me in front- yay! got in a picture!! thank you, sweet man who was sitting next to us!)

PS we found out that Mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 Kidney disease in 2009 and never had it treated. Mind you she was in the hospital for 6 days and we never heard any of that- my sister called the Kidney Center whose card I found in her rol-a-dex. We were just baffled by the dementia diagnosis and how fast her health declined- nothing was making much sense to us, but this explained a lot. I don't know why she never had it treated or told us for that matter, but that was Mom.