We Are Family...

One of the nice but sometimes kind of crazy things about heading to KY for us is that a portion of both segments of our family live fairly close to each other. We typically try to always see both sides while we're down there. Seeing as how we're usually on a limited time frame though, it seems we never quite get to see everyone we'd like to. This time we knew we would be seeing almost everyone from Dad's family as we were all gathering together on Memorial Day. However, we got an added "bonus" with mom's family this time because of....well, a funeral.

Funerals are big gathering places for our families. Really, it sounds a little morbid, but they do tend to turn into mini family reunions. It so happened that on this trip, Mom's Uncle Claybert had passed away and the memorial service was taking place while we were down there. So Mom, Adam and I got cleaned up and headed over to it with my Mom's sister Betty.

Of my mom's 8 aunts and uncles (plus my grandmother), only 4 are left. And they are a hoot! I took the opportunity to shoot a photo of them while we were there. They always line up oldest to youngest (which usually takes a couple minutes to sort out, as Glenn tends to usually try to get in the wrong place in line!)

Then, as we were sitting there waiting for the service to start, Mom's baby sister Cheryl (pronounced in our hillbilly slang as "Shirl") comes in, escorted by another sister, Emma. We've not seen Aunt Emma in about 7 years, so this was a nice surprise. Of course....the camera comes out again. Now, it was a hot day, and I was kind of worried about Aunt "Shirl" because she's on oxygen. Sure enough, we weren't standing there long when she says we need to hurry because she's having trouble breathing. So as I'm trying to take the shot they're all trying to help her because she's breathing harder, and Betty asks her if she still has oxygen in her tank. Now, what kind of question is that?? Of course she still has oxy...well, will you look at that...the tank is out of oxygen! Quickly we switch to portable power and soon she's doing an oxygen inspired happy dance! (literally. It was quite entertaining!) There's a lot of laughter and chitter chatter.

Which sounds kind of out of place at a funeral, I guess...but the fact is, life does go on and you have to take every opportunity you can to enjoy it. So, even though it was not the best of circumstances, I'm sure glad we got the chance to laugh with the clan one more time.

And I'm REALLY glad that Aunt Shirl got her oxygen back on in time!