An eventful day

Thanks for all your well wishes - you're all the best.

Most of you know, but Grandmom died this morning, and she's in a better place now.

We've spent the day making final arrangements, setting the mass times, meeting with the funeral director, helping with travel where we can. The services aren't until Sunday night and Monday morning, and there really isn't much to do between now and then but sit and accept visitors.

Which you all know I adore.

I did want to log on here and tell you some of the funny stories from spending a week at the Villa and a week (and counting) at the convent. I should have been better about writing every day, but it truly is exhausting to keep vigil for seven days!

I should have been better about telling you about yesterday, when I was determined to get some work done. Lots was going on, lots of phone calls, lots of e-mails to reply to. So I started in the solarium of the Villa, which opens into the balcony of the chapel. Laptop up, bluetooth earpiece in. Until mass started and the hymns could be heard through my phone. So I moved to another sitting area, until a woman scheduled to give manicures to the residents arrived and kicked me out.

So I moved to Grandmom's room, but the constant flow of nuns and the priest (the priest more than almost all the nuns) didn't hide their disapproval that I continued to click-clack on my laptop when they came in to pay respects.

I moved to Aunt Mary's room (sidebar: Grandmom is my mom's mom. My dad's aunt, Mary, is in the room directly across the hall from Grandmom. Just moved in about three weeks ago.), and stayed in there for a good bit. Aunt Mary is on bed rest and deaf, so she was just hangin' out saying the rosary.

That was relatively uneventful (buy me a glass of wine and I'll give you the "relatively" part), until she had a visitor. Since Aunt Mary's deaf, the visitor was very, very loud.

I ultimately found a room down the hall where the resident was in the hospital so her room was empty. Bingo! Finished out the day there.

Let me jump ahead to today, when we were making final arrangements (I know, I'm skipping all over, but cut me some slack, people). I say "final," because we really had done quite a lot during the seven days we kept vigil. The mass was planned, the mass booklet typed up, the cover ready to go (less the dates), the outfit picked out and dry cleaned, the church and luncheon place on alert, the jewelry decided.

Some things, though, you really do need to wait until they're dead. Like the casket. Kinda tacky to pick it out ahead of time.

I went with the aunts to the funeral home this afternoon and we made the final arrangements. Wait, I said that already. (More slack, please. I was the one who answered the phone from the Villa this morning because Aunt Jo was in the shower. And trying to figure out this massive phone system that runs the three floors of the convent at 5:20 a.m. was a bit startling.)

Anyway, the funeral home. The funeral director actually graduated from an elementary school where Aunt Jo was several years back. Which provided endless fodder for the ride home, since he must have said "you's" about three dozen times.

We handled it all very well, and then went into the "showroom."

I was prepared for this, and frankly, we all were. It wasn't terribly shocking or emotional. In fact, it was hysterical.

Hysterical because they just renovated their showroom. JUST. We were, in fact, the first clients to see it. And the funeral director was very proud.

It didn't have full-sized caskets. Instead, they were mostly "corner cuts" of different styles. But in between each opening with a "corner cut," the wall panel pulled out to display all the upgrade options - different color liners, double liners, added embellishments.

There was even a big electronic display in the middle of the room for "customizable" caskets. The funeral director literally said, "It's like being at WaWa!" (For those of you unfamiliar, WaWa is to 7-eleven what a Whole Foods or Central Market is to a Giant.) It was a big touch screen, and you could go through tons of options and pictures and make your own casket.

Oy.

But the funeral director was very proud. (Just for Lauren....) Bless his heart.

So, an eventful day all around! Lots of phone calls and planning and visiting and grocery shopping and you name it! No eulogy writing though. Gotta get on that!

First, though, another glass of wine...