Saturday, January 19, 2008

"Provide Some Distraction"

Spent most of the past week up in New York. The trip was sudden, and the reason for it rather sad: Michelle's grandmother passed away on Tuesday. We left early Wednesday and didn't come back until Saturday afternoon.

Her family's taken it rather hard, understandably. But man, they come out of the woodwork for funerals up there. There must have been over 200 people at the wake Wednesday night, and the funeral on Thursday had a good 75 to 100 in attendance.

The post-funeral lunch was an event unlike any I've ever seen. Some 60 family members crammed into a single room, eating pasta and drinking wine. Lots of wine. Sooooo much wine. Michelle's family went through a lot of wine this week.

It was a sad event, all told, but there was a sense of relief in everyone's eyes. Her grandmother had been suffering for quite awhile, having dealt with kidney failure for the past couple of years and going in and out of the hospital quite often. She was in pain, and now she's not.

She's been posthumously sainted by the family, we noticed. Michelle's grandmother was quite the crazy character, but you wouldn't know it from the way they all talk about her now.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Rufus Wainwright, "Katonah"

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