Back from the funeral weekend.

I just got back from my last grandparent's funeral. That's it. I have no more grandparents. It feels weird.
It had been a long time since I had seen my grandfather. The man in the casket I did not recognize. He was 93 when he passed and for the last year his health had been failing. The photo of him on the candle that was burning near his casket was a photo of the man that I remembered. It was taken a few years ago. So he was too different from what I remembered him.
I was asked to be a pallbearer along with a handful of my cousins that I met on the weekend. Some I remembered visiting when I was a kid, One I remembered when he stayed with us for a week or so...about 28 years ago. Others, I couldn't recall ever meeting but they were much younger than me. I felt honored to do this for my grandfather, for my mother, for my family.
I was unsure going to Timmins for this funeral. Like I said, I hadn't seen these people in a long, long time. So I didn't know what to expect. My reward was warm memories of every single one of them. I had been with them at some point. The family used to gather together every year when grandma was alive. but she passed a long time ago and it seemed like the ball got dropped and that the closeness was gone.
All of my mom's siblings were there this weekend. There are 4 sons still alive and 11 daugthers. 1 daughter had passed away at the age of two, talking about this pains my mother even 55 years after the fact. I remember when my 2 uncles passed away. The first about 15 years ago of cancer, and the other 10 years ago due to a work related accident. In all my grandfather had 18 children all from the same marriage. That alone is incredible.

Many years after my grandmother had passed, my grandfather remarried. Her name is Cecile she is considered his widow now. She had a daugther. The closeness that the family had, pretty much ceased after this. Cecile was never really accepted by my grandfather's children. I was much to young to know what was going on. Now, I can see where things had gone wrong and had things been done a little differently, a lot of pain may have been spare. But hindsight is always 20/20.

But I digress. I have no regrets what-so-ever about this weekend. I am very pleased that I got to see all of my aunts and uncles. I don't know when they'll all be together like this again. I found that my mom's family is a typical French Canadian family, that loves to laugh. They were all very warm people and they were certainly full of hugs and kisses. I the last 16 years or so I may not have spoken or seen my grandfather but I see his legacy in his children. With was there this weekend and what was spoken about him, I can only remember his laughter. He laughed a lot. Every time that I did see him, he laughed. I can help but get the feeling that he was a good guy.

On a side note, when I was 18 I worked a summer for my uncle (who passed away about 10 years ago) While I worked there, I stayed with my aunt and uncle and their 2 daughters, Melanie and Stephanie. Melanie would have been about 10 and Stephanie about 4 I guess. While I lived there I was like their big brother. I scared away the bully that used to pick on them all the time. This weekend I got to rekindle that relationship with Melanie. We exchanged MSNs and we will be keeping in touch. It should be easy to do since she is my 3rd little sister ;-).

We took a bit longer leaving Timmins this morning, since it was my nephew's confirmation. I would have gone up to Timmins just to be there for him on this special day.

I apologize to the readers, this is just a dump of my weekend. It was such an awesome time. I would do it again in a heartbeat.