This past weekend I attended my grandma's funeral. Lois Taylor Dayton. At the risk of sounding crazy, I had really been looking forward to it! My grandma was an amazing woman: she was strong, beautiful, giving, sweet, loving, funny...just so many wonderful things and I will miss her like crazy. But she was also 101 and had been without her husband for nearly 10 years. We may not have been ready to lose her, but she was ready to go. The funeral was wonderful. It was such a blessing to be with SO many loved ones and to feel my grandma's spirit during that whole weekend. I love nothing more than family gatherings and with my grandma's passing, the reunions of that generation will most likely become less frequent and so I wanted to take advantage of being with everyone this weekend. Especially my brothers. There are so many of us that being all together is rare, but everyone made a huge effort (like flying in from China) so it could happen. I was also honored that one of my Uncles asked me to accompany my sister-in-law singing a song he wrote about his mother. I've always loved my Uncle Lyman's music and his song was so beautiful. I've been listening to it constantly, and he said I could share the demo recording with you. Unfortunately, I don't know how to put a song on here out of my itunes folder... Awesome. If anyone wants to teach me how, I'll let you. In the mean time, pictures!
Most of my immediate family that came at the cemetary.
Of course it's impossible to get a decent picture of everyone, but at least this is all 12 kids with my parents.
My parents in the receiving ling.
The pallbearers: 8 of her grandsons.
Choir rehearsal for the 47 of the 49 grandkids and spouses that were there. We sang the closing song, "Oh, What Songs of the Heart." Or, for some of us, we
tried to sing the closing song. There wasn't a lot of sound coming out of my mouth.
This isn't everyone that made it---many had to leave directly after the funeral. But here's the family picture we got of Lois Taylor Dayton's kids, their kids, grankids and great-grandkids outside the church.
*Awesome photos courtesy of my awesome cousins,
Damian and James*
27 comments:
Barb was that you in the picture up there? Are you the only girl with 11 brothers? Holy Moly Woman!!
So sorry to hear of your Grandma's passing but I get it. One of mine lived until 102 and she said "it's too long". Funerals are such great family gatherings and such spiritual meetings - the most spirital of all!
I know just what you mean about funerals. When you have the peace of the gospel and know that you will see the deceased again, well then funerals are just plain good family fun. Glad you got to be together with those you love.
O.k. it is indeed a small world. I started reading your blog from Mormon Mommy Blogs and this post got me wondering if you are related to Taylor Dayton. I went on a date with him once. We went to the movies and got wings at Chili's. He is a great guy. We used to work together at NuSkin.
Anyhow, I am thinking I may have spotted him in the photo. If he's not related then he should be if your grandma's name was Lois Taylor Dayton. :)
Sorry to hear about your grandmother's passing but I would say she lived one heck of a life at 101! Wow. I think I will be ready to go a lot sooner than that.
It sounds like she was loved and surrounded by so many wonderful people!
What a beautiful funeral gathering. I'm sure she was smiling down on all you lovely people.
Well you really can't ask for more for a life than that! To have lived fully and been well loved. What else really is there?
That is quite the posterity. I know what you mean by grandma being ready to go. Our grandma had been without her husband for over 50 yrs and she was certainly ready to be with him. I can just imagine those type of reunions. Its so wonderful to think about that so much so that the funeral really isn't that sad. You can start having family reunions with ur parents as patriarch/matriarch! With 8 kids, we've been doing that for 6yrs on a 2 yr schedule and I love it. Think of how wonderful it would be with 12 kids!
I love it when a funeral is a celebration. It means so many things have gone right.
WOw, that's an impressive group. I'm glad it was a good experience and she's with her honey now. She obviously was an amazing woman with that many people who attended her funeral.
Perhaps the saddest thing about the weekend was not in the farewells to Grandma, but thinking that we would never have that group together again, ever.
Maybe we will have to do something about that.
I am glad you liked my photos!
it's fun to see them!
Like you said, you may not have been ready, but she was, and how lovely to let her go with such a sweet celebration. 101? That is a great life!
Wow! What an amazing family! Even though it was a funeral, it sure brought the family together and those kind of gatherings are the best!
Someday I hope to have a funeral like that. I can't even imagine meaning that much to so many people - your grandma must have been (probably still is) awesome.
WHat an awesome family you have! And I love the pic of you, your parents, and all of those brothers. SO so cool!
Sorry for your loss, but you are so right about funerals being great reunions.
Barb, I'm so sorry for your loss.
It sounds like your grandma was the kind of woman I hope to be someday.
I'm so glad there are examples like her in the world.
What a wonderful tribute. I hope someday my funeral is like that-- a great big party of all my wild hooligan offspring.
I'm sorry for your loss, and I truly LOVE your perspective!
What a cool family! It's sad to see them go but she must have been a very awesome lady to have you look forward to this gathering so much!
That is such a wonderful tribute to a wonderful family!
Amazing!
I bet it was so great to be all together, best tribute to her is you all.
I enjoyed those photos. What a family gathering for sure. You are like an Osmond....all those brothers. You must have been cherished by your parents to finally get a daughter eh.
She lived a good long life. Amazing really.
She is probably very happy right now to be back with her husband,
I too love how funerals bring familys together. The unity and love is very strong.
I know. I've done a few funerals, that were mostly family reunions. It is hard that it takes a not so great occasion to get all of us together. It's great to see everyone and hard too. I am sorry for your loss.
Those are some neat pictures. I'm bummed my family didn't get one all together, but it was neat that so many people were able to be there!
What a neat experience to be together with your whole family!
And, fyi, I was able to download a song once on imeem.com. It was tricky, but I did figure it out eventually.
Barb, so sorry to hear about your grandmother. But I understand your thoughts exactly. My grandmother was just flat lonely (not Grand Janie; my very old grandmother) and it was sad for us to be without her, but she's MUCH happier with my grandpa now. In other news, is that Cokeville???
What a beautiful celebration! She sounds like she was an amazing woman! How fortunate to be loved by so many friends and family:)
it's such an amazing testament to a good woman that she had so much family there to wish her well and celebrate her life!
On a completely unrelated note I've been thinking of you for days... mostly because I have had a muscle twitch in my eyes since last Thursday... I think I might go crazy soon... I'll let you know :)
I am so sorry for your loss, but you're right, she lived a wonderful life, didn't she! And it is always great to have areason for the family to get together.
And holy cow! I knew you came from a large family, but I had NO idea you were the only girl. Love it. I am the only girl, but I only have three brothers. I salute you. :)
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