Funeral

On August 29th, 2013 we received some news that we knew was coming.

Will's father had passed away.

He'd been on the decline for about 9 months after a fall and some surgeries. He had finally just... given up. He didn't want to live bedridden because he'd always been an active guy.

Will and I flew to Idaho on September 2nd (well actually we flew to SLC and drove to Idaho Falls). We'd never been on an airplane together, we'd never traveled out of state, except once to California when I was pregnant with Gwen. It was a sad occasion to require travel but it was really nice to get that time together.

On our drive we took a turn off of the interstate because of Abby and ended up driving past the place where Will had lived as a young boy. It was getting dark so I didn't get to see much of the landscape between Pocatello and Idaho Falls (and I really missed out as I found out on the drive back).

We arrived late in the evening at his sister Angela's house where we were going to be staying. His sister Kendra was also staying there. Kendra is his only full sibling and is a little younger than he is. His dad had 3 daughters who are older and were nearly grown when Will was born.

Tuesday morning we had a slow morning and went out for breakfast at Dixie's Diner (it was excellent and we ended up eating there a few other times, too) which used to be a Five and Diner. Then went to Will's dad's house to go through his things. The memorial/funeral was going to be held on Wednesday. We spent nearly all day going through his things. He kept a lot of things from his time in Korea and there was many pictures of his kids. I walked around the neighborhood. It was beautiful there, so very green and lush grass, yards full of gardens and fresh rhubarb.

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Wednesday morning we all got up and got dressed. Black clothes and a Maltese don't mix well and we were constantly picking long white dog hair off of our clothes. But the memorial was good. Will's dad had touched many people. According to his children, he wasn't the best father, but he was a good person. He had been deeply religious later in life. He came from a family of 4 boys and one girl. One of his brothers had died before him, and we met his other 2 brothers and the little sister. She had great stories and was just about the cutest little lady ever. I enjoyed listening to her tell about their life and how her dad had always said that her mom had "eyes like a cow" which many people might be offended by, but she wasn't. We got pictures of the siblings, 4 beautiful ladies and 1 handsome son. At the funeral there were people who came up and introduced themselves to Will, saying it was clear he was part of that family, he looked just like his dad.


Thursday Will and I drove around. We went to his dad's house again to take a few things that Will wanted that reminded him of his dad. We sent them home via UPS. Then we went to the falls and walked around for a while. Will has suffering from what he thought were bad allergies. It made sense because the grass was tall and green and abundant. After we spent time at the falls we drove up to visit one of his other sisters (from his mom's side, he has 3 sisters and 1 brother on that side- not including his younger sister, though one of them passed away 18 years ago from cancer).

We got back to Idaho Falls and went out to dinner. Then went back to his sister's house and went to bed.

Friday morning we went to Dixie's Diner again and then we left to drive back to SLC for our flight back to AZ.

We basically traveled all day, which makes for a long day. We arrived home around 11pm. My mom and dad had stayed at our house with the 3 older girls. (So glad for that, it made the trip easier.)