And Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon All of Us

Mom’s urn was a metal.  I’d never really thought about urns until we were faced with the task of picking one out.  Brother Dan thought that this one would appeal to her.  As usual, he was right.

Now, back to the diggers.  After about ten minutes of digging, Brother Jim asked, “Is this deep enough?”

Dean shook his head, “No, only if I stand on her and push her down about a foot.”

I started writing this conversation down.  You never know when you might need this information.

“Erin, bring the urn over.  The hole is deep enough.”

“Wait a minute, I’m writing all this down.  I don’t want to forget anything.”

***************

Things I learned:

1.  A hole needs to be fairly deep....even for an urn.

2.  Packing tape works well for lowering an urn into the ground.  Take a big long piece, loop it around the urn, and it will act as a means of helping the urn descend into the grave in a sacred manner.  We didn’t do this.

3.  God loves fools and my family.

4.  Lay plywood down before digging a hole and put the dirt on the plywood.  Then when you fill in the hole, the ground around the grave doesn’t look nasty.  The finished grave will look much nicer.

5.  Sprinkle a little grass seed on the dirt to get the grave looking good.

6.  Mom and Dad did a good job with raising the three of us.  We knew that Mom was in heaven and that this burial could be a family story for the rest of our days.  We appreciated every minute of it!

*****************

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.


**************************

PS.  God, thank you for my parents.  They prepared me to live, love, and laugh....usually all at the same time!

My family in approximately 1958.