Debby made it to North Carolina first thing this morning. From what I was told, after I took my kids to bed, Auntie Laura, Jenny and mom did a lot of searching online for flights that would work, and they called and talked to the airline about getting the compassion ticket rate. But things weren’t so easy as it was before because there weren’t many flights that would come in early enough, and then by the time they found something that might work it was already past midnight in North Carolina, but they were trying to get Debby on a flight in Utah, right now, but the website wouldn’t let them buy the ticket because in North Carolina it was already the next day. So that meant another call to the airline. Then they finally had a ticket all set for Debby and they called her to tell her that they got her ticket ready and to go to the counter, and Jenny asked to verify how her name is printed on her drivers license. Debby still has her maiden name on her license, but they bought the ticket and put her married name on it. So that meant yet another call to the airline, and they had to cancel the ticket and then try to buy a new one, but since they already tried charging the first ticket to Grandma’s card, the card wouldn’t work the second time. So I guess Debby had to use her own card to pay for her ticket at the counter.
Great Grandma Ruby’s funeral was just a simple graveside service. It was cold and overcast and rainy. There were several cousins whom I have never met, that also attended. They were children and grandchildren of Great Grandma Ruby’s sisters, from what I could figure out. Great Grandma Ruby’s two living sisters Frances and Edna were also there, but due to the rain and the fact that they are also really old (upper 80’s early 90’s) they sat in their cars and watched from a distance.
Auntie Laura spoke a bit about Grandma Ruby and some of the funny things that she remembers. And then some of the other cousins also shared some experiences that they had had with Great Grandma Ruby, but to them she was “Aunt Ruby”.
When everyone was done sharing experiences, that was pretty much it. Mom and I went to the cars where Edna and Frances were to go talk to them a bit. We only got to talk to Frances though because Edna’s car drove away while we were still talking to Frances. Aunt Frances was so happy to see us. She couldn’t believe that my mom was there, and when she saw me, she knew exactly who I was. Tyra was with us too, and Aunt Frances asked if she was Chloe. We told her that this one is Tyra, but that I had come with all of my children. She really was just very happy to see us. And I was impressed that even though she got Tyra’s name wrong, she did make a guess with another of my kids names. So she does know my kids names, even though she had never seen any of them before today. 🙂
Here is Grandma Katrina, with mom and Auntie Laura next to Great Grandma Ruby’s casket. You can see the bulge in the canvas tent from the pouring rain:
Here are all of Great Grandma Ruby’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that attended:
And here is a picture of all of Great Grandma Ruby’s descendants that attended (well aside from me because I am the one taking the picture 😛 :
I didn’t get a picture of everyone that was there. One of the cousins took what I thought was a picture, saying he would email it to everyone, but when the email came, we found that it was actually a video. Of course we weren’t doing anything other than looking at the camera because we all thought he was just taking a picture. I am sad that there wasn’t a luncheon or some other gathering or something, indoors somewhere so that we could have had a chance to mingle and chat with the other relatives some more.
Here is a picture of Great Grandma Ruby’s obituary:
I don’t know who wrote the obituary, but I thought it would have been awesome if it had mentioned Great Grandma Ruby’s legacy of three daughters, eight grandchildren, at least sixteen great grandchildren, and at least ten GREAT GREAT grandchildren! I say “at least” on those last two because I’m not sure that my count is accurate; there may be others that have been born into the family that I am not aware of yet. 🙂 I think it’s amazing that my great grandmother lived long enough to have that many generations of descendants before she died. I am so grateful that we were able to pack up last minute and fly across country to be able to be here for her funeral. I just wish that we hadn’t waited so long to come.