After the Funeral

So, back in Texas.  Very short visit, just about 24 hours.  Crazy.  We ended up taking advantage of the American Airlines Bereavement discount.

The funeral was fine.  I ended up crying, which I didn’t expect.  I think it was all the emotion in the air.  It just all seemed so very, very final.  My dad made me and my sister go up to the open casket to say our farewells and at first I was like, “I don’t want to.  I didn’t like this woman very much.  I don’t have anything to say.”  But, I got up there and saw her lying in that casket and…I thought, “this is the last time I’ll see you…  This is it.”  She looked so pathetic, and I felt bad that I had been so mean.  So, I bowed my head and apologized and wished that she was not in pain anymore.  I was very surprised at how emotional I was.

All my aunts were crying, and my uncle was crying and then her sister was crying.  It was all really very sad.  I think I cried more because I could feel how sad everyone else was.  Well, except for my one uncle-in-law.  I wonder if he was slightly happy?  My sister told me when she picked me up from the airport that at the viewing (which was a few hours before, I couldn’t make it in time for that) that he walked up to my dad right as the viewing ended, right in front of the body, and said, “Ok, after the lunch tomorrow we’ll split the money.”  And then he just walked off.

My dad was shocked.  I mean, how can a person be so greedy?  Sure enough, after the funeral was over, and we all finished lunch at this korean restaurant, the adults went over to my aunt’s house to “discuss business.”  Everyone else was dreading it and rolling their eyes, but this uncle was…. well, he was something else.  I have no idea how much money is even left to divide up.  When my maternal grandfather passed away they divided up some of the money they got from this HUGE malpractice settlement.  He had slipped and broke his neck, after which he lost the use of his arms and legs.  Apparently, if the paramedics had done something when they first found him, he might not have been paralyzed.  So, of course, his family sued and won a HUGE settlement.  It was enough to buy a house for my second youngest aunt.

I guess they were meeting to divide up the money that my grandmother received after my grandfather passed away.  Ugh, I just feel like it’s so tacky.

Anyways, it’s over.  Everyone seems to have taken it really well.  Though, I guess that’s what happens when you aren’t very close to your kids.  My youngest aunt was struggling with her eulogy cause she said she didn’t know her mother very well.  Which is terribly sad, but I’ll probably have the same problem.  I also think that was why she was taking it so hard cause she didn’t really know her and now it’s too late.

Well, hopefully the whole awful “business” side of it was all taken care of.  The last time with my grandfather it dragged on forever with a few of the aunts and uncle bickering.

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