uncle charlie

I don't know why it took a death in the family to get us to Mobile; it's really not that far away, and obviously we know people there. And there are plenty of interesting things to do there, none of which we had time for. We spent a lot of time at Aunt Jane's house. Relatives slowly arrived, and the slightly-somber family reunion atmosphere common to these situations developed. It was a little odd for me, because I was an outsider in this group. Not that anyone was deliberately excluding me in any way; it's just that, well, I didn't grow up in this family. People I'd never met before reminisced about people I'd never known, and a childhood that I was no part of. It was interesting, and I enjoyed listening. It was just very different from my grandmother's funeral. Rich probably feels the same way, in reverse. Aunt Jane seemed to be holding up well, all things considered. Actually the obligations of being a good hostess were helpful for her, I think.   

Sunday afternoon we all went to the viewing. It was family-only for an hour, then open to the public. I don't know what to say about that without either sounding banal or nakedly emotional. So, um, the flowers were nice. There were a lot of 'em, too. It's a big family. In fact, when I'd called the day before to order some, the florist saw my name on caller ID and immediately asked if I was ordering for Mr. S. Then she suggested I buy a basket, because there were so many sprays already. Good call.

We left about five thirty, bought dinner and drove home. The funeral itself was today, but Nick can't afford to miss more school. It was a pleasant trip home, at any rate; Zoe fell quietly asleep in the first hour, and Nick watched movies and was no trouble at all. 

The kids, by the way, had never even met Uncle Charlie. So to them, this was basically an unexpected vacation. Zoe mostly had a great time; there were all these adults with grown kids who wanted to coo over her. Nick was less thrilled; there were all  these adults with grown kids, and no children to play with. Well, there were some teenagers, who were indulgent of their young relation, but that's not quite the same. Nick did manage to play a lot of Uno with whoever he could talk into a game. And he watched some TV, and so forth and so on, and we spent some time in the hotel pool. But basically he would have rather been at the birthday party he was missing to go on this trip. 

And I most sincerely hope there will be no more funerals for a long time.