Life with the Liggetts: Grandma Wheeler

We got home late last night after a quick trip to Ohio. The past couple of days have been a complete whirlwind, but we were glad that we were able to be at Grandma Wheeler's funeral and spend some time with family. All in all, it was a pretty sad trip, but we all did our best to make the past couple of days a celebration of her life, which is definitely what she would have wanted it to be.

We left Austin early Monday morning, got into Toledo that afternoon, and went directly from the airport to Grandma Wheeler's house where family and friends had been invited to come from 2 to 7 p.m. Everybody had a great time reminiscing and catching up, and I even got to meet Ben's godmother for the first time. The house was packed the entire 5 hours, and many of the people were still there long after 7 o'clock. At one point during the evening, there was even an impromptu fashion show -- all of the granddaughters paraded through the house wearing Grandma Wheeler's dresses, shoes, and purses. It was awesome!

When we woke up that next morning for the funeral, it was snowing. The service was beautiful, and it was so neat to see so many of the kids and grandkids participate in the service -- with eulogies, prayers, Bible readings, communion, etc. Both Aunt Kim and Uncle Jim spoke, and they did a great job. Aunt Kim talked about much her parents loved one another and said that she could only imagine what kind of reunion they had on Sunday night considering that they had 10 kids and 35 grandkids and had probably not spent an evening just the two of them in 57 years. Uncle Jim talked about what a wonderful mother she was and commented on how she had to be resourceful while raising 10 kids and even went so far as to pass down his older sister's swimsuit bottoms to him once she had outgrown them and scaring him for life. Needless to say, they both had us rolling with laughter in the midst of all the tears.

After the funeral, everybody headed over to The Beirut (a family favorite) for lunch. After eating and saying goodbye to everybody, we drove our rental car to Detroit, which is about an hour away, to catch our flight home. It was definitely a quick and exhausting trip, but we feel so blessed that we were able to spend the past couple of days with Ben's side of the family -- laughing, crying, and expressing our love for Grandma Wheeler.

For those of you who are interested, you can read her obituary here: http://coylefuneralhome.com/obituaries.html (just click on "Margaret Jean Wheeler"). You can also click on "Memorial Video" to see a slide show that the funeral home put together.

Ben's cousin Audra also put together a really good slide show, but if you're anything like me, you might want to grab a tissue before you hit play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_epR63wKod4&feature=channel

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers during this time. Grandma Wheeler really was such a wonderful lady, and even though she hasn't always been my Grandma, she has always made me feel like a part of the family -- even during my very first trip to Ohio back in August 2004.