Memories and Rings

This weekend we celebrated a "Celebration of Life" for my Mother-in-Law.  A coming together of family to honor her in the cemetery and lay her beside her Mother and her sister.  

We know her soul and mind were freed from her body, the moment she passed away.  Having a time to recognize that is a very important step of healing and one we had waited seven months for.   Her wishes were to have her celebration in the summer to make sure the "boys" didn't miss a day of school on her behalf.

She would have smiled and teared up if she could have seen her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews sitting around a table laughing and sharing memories.  

Then we had a party!  Pink tablecloths, her beautiful flower arrangements brought from home, fried chicken and cake and family and friends.  Sharing stories and listening to others tell theirs helped us all grasp the enormity of a legacy left by a little German Grandmother and our Barb.  Humbling.  Our lives had become intertwined through blood, marriage and by spirit.

Finally, we met as a family at her house to cry, laugh, look through pictures and her beautiful things.  Big old Grandsons sitting on her bedroom floor with tears streaming as they looked through her collection of jewelry.  Laughing at the bright orange bracelets and fingering the rings that were on those "Grandma's" hands.  

She was a classy lady.  She was also the most giving woman I know.  Always doling out mints and tic tacs out of her purse with rings that matched! 

My mind's eye went back to little boys fingering her bracelets in church or holding her hands in prayer at a mealtime. 

It was awful and precious as we each chose a ring to take home with us.  Such a feeling of discomfort and repulsion on one hand.  The rings belonged in her beautiful dresser or her soft hands.  

And yet, it became a kind of symbol of her life living on in us.  Stories, memories, shared moments and rings will go with these five boys as they begin their lives and families.  

The legacy is the inheritance.  

The blessing of a life well lived.