A Celebration Of Life

A celebration was held for a cousin of mine yesterday. He was almost two years younger than I. The same age as my brother who lives in Texas. Two other brothers made the funeral or rather the celebration of life!

It was more of a celebration than I have witnessed prior. His children spoke, and his siblings, co-workers, and others all talked about what a great guy he was.

They spoke of how he loved his family and community. They talked about how proud he was of his children and his community. He would call and tell others about someone's great deed or accomplishment.

He was a loving brother, partner, father, grandfather, and great- grandfather. He was so proud of everyone all of the time. He loved his community and was happy to let others know!

He was a firefighter for his community and the country. He died from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) from what I understand. That didn't get talked about as much as how he never complained.

Of course, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were there. It was fun to see them and to meet a few too.

The last time I visited with him was at a family reunion and he and his brother were drinking. We didn't visit long. One of his children mentioned how he quit drinking.

The food was great! A large buffet of hotdishes or casserole's, meat, potatoes, dressing, other side dishes, deserts and beverages. It was great seeing family that I would like to see more often.

There were many relatives that I hadn't seen in a long time. Many elderly relatives. Grey hair, wrinkles, canes. I don't know why I didn't expect that. Some were in their 80s and even 90s.

It is sure possible that my cousins felt the same way when seeing me. One cousin thought I was my mother. I have a cousin with dementia, and others that mentioned having some memory difficulty, or how they can't see well.

Suppose I could look like my mother as she died when she was 75, and I will be 70 in less than a month. At first, I was offended. Then I thought of how I didn't get offended when people would say that when I was younger.

We talked about being grateful for Facebook as we can keep up with each other to some degree.

While growing up this cousins' parents were very religious. His father was a fundamental Christian minister. It was interesting to see that the culture was included in the service. They had started a fire at his house, and it was kept burning as prescribed in many Native American families.

There was a drum at the funeral, and they played a couple of honor songs that people stood up for. I thought that was well done, even though I thought it may have been just a part of the family that supported that.

Times they are a changing. Our people got religious freedom in 1978 and it has taken some time to incorporate much into regular services but it is happening.

This aging business! I took a grandson with me and introduced him around. It is good for our grandchildren to meet family. I picked up my brother an hour from the funeral. We had a nice visit while my grandson slept.

The grandson drove all three hours back to his school, where he went to basketball, and I went to dinner and hung out until he was done to bring him home with me. It was a long day for both of us and it didn't take us long when we got home to fall asleep.

There are no regrets, and I was glad to see so many cousins that I pretty much only see at funerals or weddings. It is too bad there aren't more weddings to even it out a little!

The celebration of life is getting easier for me to accept after this cousins death.