Virginia

 

We've known this day was coming, but we were still sad when we learned that Jesse had passed away. Fortunately, we were able to quickly prepare to leave town and we enjoyed the time we spent with family honoring his life and sharing our memories of him.

Our first order of business was checking in with Holly. We tried catching her at work, but when we arrived at The Agency, she was already out doing community involvement, which she loves. Then the next day Brad arrived in town to surprise her! And we helped decorate her "Hollyday" tree for the next holiday - 4th of July.

The funeral activities were spread over three days - Thursday evening for a viewing at the funeral home, Friday evening for the family meal and funeral service at the church, Saturday for the burial at the cemetery (and another family dinner).

Wind chimes instead of flowers - what a unique idea!

Russell's boys did a beautiful job singing "I am a Child of God" during the service; this picture was taken after the practice beforehand.

Russell made his father's casket and did a great job!

At the cemetery, we had the opportunity to see Mom's finished headstone. We were also reminded that Steven's mother-in-law was raised in Mt. Airy, and we checked out her grandparents' and great-grandparents' graves.

We've never seen the casket actually lowered into the hole, but the mortuary had permission to do so before the family left, and it's actually quite interesting to watch.

Before leaving Virginia, we took a quick tour of a retirement home with Louise, Nicole and Dad. Who knows? Maybe on a return trip we'll do some of our visiting there. (And we also got in some hiking time.)

One morning we were awakened at 4 AM by what sounded like an explosion, but nothing seemed to be out of order, and we didn't hear any commotion outside of our hotel room, so we went back to sleep. However, upon opening our little fridge later, we discovered a giant, purple mess! Apparently, a can of Spindrift got frozen and burst open. So, we did hear an explosion!