Great Nana

Last week my husband's Nan (Great Nana to the kids) passed away. She was in her eighties and had a good long life. Along with her other life achievements - one of which was being a nurse, she also had 11 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren - something alone to be very proud of in my opinion. So today we said goodbye to Great Nana at her funeral. There was requiem mass at her church and my husband had the honour as a pall bearer. My three and a half year old was asking where Great Nana was when we reached teh cemetry as we had told him we were saying goodbye to her. I had to try and explain as best I could that she was in the box which is called a coffin that Daddy and the other men are carrying. He asked me how she would get out and if there was a door in the box, and I explained that she wouldn't need to get out as she was having a nice long sleep just like Nana is and that then they will go to heaven above the clouds. It is a difficult concept to grasp even for an adult, I know that he didn't really understand but I wanted them to be part of it. Some would say that it is not appropriate to have children at funerals, and I understand when there are people that are very upset they don't appreciate children running about shouting and laughing, but it is part of life and why shouldn't they be part of it when it was their great grandmother? After the funeral there was a wake around at Nan's house. It was very strange to be sitting in her house when she was no longer there. However, it was nice to meet up with family, it is just so sad that it takes events like this in order for us to all get-together.