Yesterday the family laid my brother Carl Robert to rest. His ashes in my arms, my family and I walked him to his final resting place, shared memories, wept, and said goodbye. My Brother-The-Middle-Boy and I remained behind to stand by the graveside, and witness my brother’s burial, laid to rest beside our Father. I feel better knowing where he rests, and that he was placed there gently and with respect.
My Mom and sisters prepared a luncheon at my Sister-The-Youngest-Girl’s house, and there we gathered afterward. It was lovely, and it gave me the gift of peace. We are a diverse group of individuals, my immediate family, joined together by an enduring love for my dear departed brother, and for one another. There is beauty even in sad times.
Mom is doing well, it is very hard for her. She keeps busy taking care of the her “brood”, me, my sisters, my brothers, and the Grandchildren. She looked so beautiful yesterday.
A photograph Carl Robert took on a walk near my Granny and Grandpa’s house. The house in the distance was Great Grandfather’s farm.
The heat wave continues, as does the drought. An unforgettable summer.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
18°C
Date: 7:00 AM EDT Sunday 7 August 2016
Condition:Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: rising
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 17.6°C
Dewpoint: 14.2°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: WNW 9 km/h
Quote
“…the safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.”
Voltaire
1694 – 1778
I’m glad that you’ve found peace. I think sharing these kinds of events helps a lot.
I too feel lucky to have been able to share in my grandparents lives. I think experiencing their warm yet courageous lives has helped me be more open to people while at the same time perhaps making me stronger than many. I hope so.
We’ve had some nighttime rains and slightly cooler temps this weekend. We’ve been able to turn off the air conditioning in the evenings and open the windows.
I agree wholeheartedly with Voltaire and have been mostly successful with that, I think.
Teri, we have had no rain at all, and the temperature continues to rise above 30C every day, it is very tiresome. There are trees dying all over the place, that have grown on shallow and/or sandy soil, mostly poplars, but other species have died as well. I remember such a dry summer in the late 80s, my entire lawn died and then then it rained and the weeds took over.
I rather think you have been mostly successful with keeping your conscious clear Ter!
What a lovely gathering you had, tears and all.
it was good for the soul Kate. There is nothing like being with people you have known all of your life, it is very nourishing.
Glad your family was able be together to scatter your brother’s ashes. A beautiful, if solemn, rite. We will be en masse to scatter Lynn’s later this month. Hugs.
Steve-Paul, it is a beautiful rite, to lay our loved ones to rest. So sorry to hear of your loss, I hope your Dad is faring well. Hugs
Maggie,
What a warm and loving entry. Your brother looks like a very handsome young man. I would have loved to have known him. That’s the feeling I got looking at the photo.
I love the photo too of your Great Grandparent’s home. and barn. Is there anything better then country living?
x0x0x0x0x0x
Thanks Nora, I always felt my three brothers to be very handsome men, but I am aware of my own prejudice, seeing them through the eyes of love. My dear departed brother was a charming and intelligent man, he was well loved. For my part, he was always the little boy with the mischevioius dancing eyes, my first buddy in the world, and that is how I saw him.
Country living can be quite wonderful Nora, but it depends on the people, as it does anywhere else. We were so very lucky to have a large loving family around my Granny and Grandpa’s place when we were growing up. We loved it, I literally thought it was heaven when I was very small. It was a place where we were known and felt connected. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it had a feeling to it that I have only experienced in one other community in my life, which was not a geographic community, but a conglomeration of artists and musicians living in Toronto.
Modern rural life in the same area now is monster houses and cottages and grasping, ambitious people who think the good life is expensive cars and trucks, big boats, and treating other people as competitors or servants. I mourn the loss of the community as much as I mourn the loss of my Granny and Grandpa and my brother.
I’m so glad you had a good gathering. I hope you (and us here in Yuma) get some real rain soon (not just a few drops and increased humidity).
Sigh. I am almost wordless lately. Your entry holds so much love.
We also need rain badly. Our trees are dying too. It’s like fall here with leaves on the ground, all brown and crumpled up. But all we seem to be having is more very hot stuff.
Thank you Joan! I do hope that Yuma gets rain, it is much warmer there than it is here, so that any humidity would be very uncomfortable. It isn’t too humid here, just dry, dry, dry. I have never seen anything quite like it in my lifetime. I am taking note of the drought tolerant weeds, because they will be the ones I favour in our yard. So far the Birdsfoot Trefoil seems to be managing, and the roadside Wild Chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace are looking healthy. There are a lot of totally dead lawns in this part of the world, they won’t be coming back. It is will be interesting to see what people do when it does rain, because the grass hasn’t survived and the yards will be mud.
I loved my brother very deeply Bex, as I do all my brothers and sisters. He and I were babies together, we were the first friend either of us had in our lives, so we had a very special bond. It will take me a long time to reconcile myself to the fact that he is gone.
Dry there too! This drought seems to be fairly widespread. The young girl who lives in the house behind us has worn all the brown grass to dust where she rides her golf cart around the yard, she is followed by billowing dust everywhere she goes. Rain, when it comes, will be interesting.
I’ve been through this, and have always been grateful that my family was together and supported one another. Your online friends are thinking of you too, and sending you blessings.
Thank you for your kind thoughts Diane. This is more difficult than I could ever have imagined it to be, but i know time will give me lengthening periods of distraction. I will always miss my brother.