Mom's Funeral

Greetings from Old Northeast, St. Petersburg, Florida.

I've been in St. Pete since my last post to Mom's blog, her funeral was on Saturday the 20th and, honestly and without being biased at all, I can report that it was a huge success and a ton of fun, as funerals go. 

I'd sent an email to friends in St. Pete reminding them of Mom's service and assuring them that both Mom and I would understand if the demands of the holidays made it so they couldn't attend.  Our dear and very old friend Neil wrote back that he and his wife Jojo would never be so busy that they'd miss a Leone funeral!  They'd attended Daddy's wake at the bowling alley and expected just as much happy remembering for Mom as we managed to have for Daddy back in '93.

The formal funeral in the sanctuary was lovely, the pastor gave a lovely Mom message and James played a lovely movie he made of old family pictures set to a lovely song about love and the building of relationships.  James will post his Nana tribute online and we'll let you know the link to that in a future BasicallyBetty.com post.

Here's Mom's prayer card.

After the hour-long funeral in the sanctuary, we moved to the memorial garden out back where the Pastor gave a commitment prayer and I put the small earring box from Burdines (Mom's choosing) containing a 50-50 mix of Daddy's and Mom's ashes into the ground, then covered it with dirt and mulch. 

The earring box topped by the Rays sticker Mom chose for her ashes to be mixed with Daddy's and put into the Memory Garden at her church.  Yes, that's my Starbucks cup in the background - Howard would be so proud!

Me putting the box into the ground.

We all tromped into the social hall where there were long tables full of sandwiches, cookies and a sheet cake.

After everyone got their plates and cups full and took their seats, I gave Mom's eulogy and Neil filmed it.  We'll get the video up on You Tube and I'll give you the link in a future BasicallyBetty.com post.  I can tell you that there was brief but intense pandemonium at the beginning of my eulogy but with the help of Joann we restored order relatively quickly and I proceeded to talk for about 10 minutes, telling stories about Mom. 

I think I'm going to sprinkle some of her ashes down in Straub Park tomorrow night as the fireworks are going on, seeing in the New Year and taking us all into what will hopefully be our best year yet.

Thank you for still coming to Mom's blog, I will be writing weekly now that the holidays are over and I hope you'll let me know how you're doing, what you're thinking and how it's going.  Mom loved you and so do Joann and I.

Love and Prayers From Here to There.