Well unbeknownst to us, due to a death in the distant family, we ended up having a brief reunion in Willard over the conference weekend. My cousin/best-friend Jared's beloved Grandma Marian passed away. She was like an adopted grandma to the rest of us since she's been attending every family function/holiday since I can remember. She was a sweet woman and hilarious as well....Jared gives a perfect impersonation of her that always leaves me in stitches.
One of my fondest memories of her was when Jared and I decided to help her and her finances out by replacing her alternator ..... for FREE!! Granted it was a good deal, but she was either very trusting or very desperate considering Jared and I had no clue what we were doing. Luckily my dad had a few junk cars at my grandparents house that were Marian's same make and model. With everyone's consent, we removed the alternator from the junk car and took special note as to how it was installed, and duplicated our efforts in Marian's car. Halfway through the process we had hit a snag and couldn't get the dang thing around the air conditioning belt. Jared presented this problem to his grandmother who agreed that we could just snip the air conditioning belt since her air conditioner didn't work anyway. (Again I remind you, our car knowledge was very minimal and we were working for free) Yay we were soon on our way to finishing our project. It was a success and the car lasted her for many more years to come.
Anyway, back to our Willard reunion.... It was a fun weekend to spend seeing family we hadn't seen in quite a while. I even got to meet my nephew Preston for the first time....right outside of Lambert's. He was adorable and so tiny. I hung out with my soon to be new sister-in-law, Natalie, saw each of my siblings and their spouses and family and played a ton with my little neices, Kayley, Ashlyn and Cora. So much has changed with everyone's families but it's always so nice to catch up with each other once in awhile. The funeral was on Tuesday following the weekend and it was a really great service. Everyone seemed very happy for Marian who finally got to join her husband on the other side....he had died 16 years earlier than her I believe. I could hardly believe how she had the strength to continue on without him all those years. I had only spent 2 1/2 days away from John during the weekend and I was going through major withdrawals.
It was a great weekend spent with family and fun and any of you that have pictures from it (i.e. siblings) please let me know so I can post some on the blog. Here is John taking advantage of a picture perfect moment after returning from the funeral. My Mom recently remodeled her bathroom and now has officially acheived "white trash" status with the placement of the old toilet in her garage. I pray it has been removed next time we visit.
2 weeks ago
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