i've been a little distracted this week
Jan. 22nd, 2021 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnToday was the second funeral in so many days I have "been" to, both of people I knew from church. (Neither were covid-19 related. At least as far as I know -- I suppose one might have been secondary effects, who knows these days.)
Yesterday's funeral, which I attended through a car receiving line, was for a rather character-filled older lady whom I didn't know super well but whom I felt a great fondness for, because the sort of "cheerfully eccentric and sometimes loudly outspoken older woman" that she was doesn't tend to be in the "Mormon" cultural playbook; we tend much more for older women to be soft-spoken, possibly energetic, but also generally speaking fairly conventional and quiet. Her daughter (daughter is probably in her 50's or 60's at this point?), also in the ward, is very different from her mom (I remember being surprised when I learned they were mother and daughter) but they were very close. We've interacted because daughter sings, so I wanted to support her as well.
(Google maps helpfully told me that the last time I was at this cemetery was last May. This was at the car receiving line funeral of another church member. I'd never been to the cemetery before this, as before lockdown, funerals of church members took place at the church building. Thanks google maps, I am not really quite sure I wanted to know that.)
Today's funeral, attended virtually, was for a guy who died last Sunday. He was probably one of the most beloved people at church, and his family one of the most beloved families, if not the most. He was CEO of various companies during his lifetime; very generous and super nice person who used his money to help others and fund various interesting projects, church-related and humanitarian and otherwise; bishop of the college ward in our area for the last four years; eight grown kids (and 18 grandchildren... so far). He was 60, and died of a sudden heart attack. His wife was the Relief Society [women's organization] president when I came into the ward ten years ago and helped me get my footing, was super supportive when I miscarried and was an emotional wreck, and was for a couple of years (after she wasn't RS president any more) my visiting teacher (a church thing which I usually explain as "instant friends!"). We haven't talked much in the last couple of years, what with everything -- but they were a super pair and kind of an amazing love story, and I feel so sad for her. The virtual funeral (which was very well done, as you'd imagine, given that this man had many of his fingers in technical pies) had all eight children and one of his brothers (our former bishop) speak. It was very much an affirmation of their faith in God and in the plan of salvation (in the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and I'm glad that they have that (even if it would be super difficult for me in similar circumstances).
(And also I guess I will confess to some existential dread -- I've been lucky, I suppose, but this is the first death connected to someone I've been reasonably close to where it just came out of nowhere: no previous health issues, no family history of heart disease, in good shape, very sudden. (I don't know whether he'd had covid.) And he was less than nine years older than D. So I've been grappling a bit with that this week too.)
Anyway, it's been, as a ward member said on a mailing list I'm on, a pretty emotional week for our ward family.
And tomorrow is the Zoom remembrance event for my super awesome high school physics teacher, one of the best teachers I've ever had. (He died in late 2020.) He was amazing and anything I say about physics pedagogy I probably learned from him.
I'm... kind of hoping really hard that there aren't any more funerals for me to attend anytime soon, please.
Yesterday's funeral, which I attended through a car receiving line, was for a rather character-filled older lady whom I didn't know super well but whom I felt a great fondness for, because the sort of "cheerfully eccentric and sometimes loudly outspoken older woman" that she was doesn't tend to be in the "Mormon" cultural playbook; we tend much more for older women to be soft-spoken, possibly energetic, but also generally speaking fairly conventional and quiet. Her daughter (daughter is probably in her 50's or 60's at this point?), also in the ward, is very different from her mom (I remember being surprised when I learned they were mother and daughter) but they were very close. We've interacted because daughter sings, so I wanted to support her as well.
(Google maps helpfully told me that the last time I was at this cemetery was last May. This was at the car receiving line funeral of another church member. I'd never been to the cemetery before this, as before lockdown, funerals of church members took place at the church building. Thanks google maps, I am not really quite sure I wanted to know that.)
Today's funeral, attended virtually, was for a guy who died last Sunday. He was probably one of the most beloved people at church, and his family one of the most beloved families, if not the most. He was CEO of various companies during his lifetime; very generous and super nice person who used his money to help others and fund various interesting projects, church-related and humanitarian and otherwise; bishop of the college ward in our area for the last four years; eight grown kids (and 18 grandchildren... so far). He was 60, and died of a sudden heart attack. His wife was the Relief Society [women's organization] president when I came into the ward ten years ago and helped me get my footing, was super supportive when I miscarried and was an emotional wreck, and was for a couple of years (after she wasn't RS president any more) my visiting teacher (a church thing which I usually explain as "instant friends!"). We haven't talked much in the last couple of years, what with everything -- but they were a super pair and kind of an amazing love story, and I feel so sad for her. The virtual funeral (which was very well done, as you'd imagine, given that this man had many of his fingers in technical pies) had all eight children and one of his brothers (our former bishop) speak. It was very much an affirmation of their faith in God and in the plan of salvation (in the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and I'm glad that they have that (even if it would be super difficult for me in similar circumstances).
(And also I guess I will confess to some existential dread -- I've been lucky, I suppose, but this is the first death connected to someone I've been reasonably close to where it just came out of nowhere: no previous health issues, no family history of heart disease, in good shape, very sudden. (I don't know whether he'd had covid.) And he was less than nine years older than D. So I've been grappling a bit with that this week too.)
Anyway, it's been, as a ward member said on a mailing list I'm on, a pretty emotional week for our ward family.
And tomorrow is the Zoom remembrance event for my super awesome high school physics teacher, one of the best teachers I've ever had. (He died in late 2020.) He was amazing and anything I say about physics pedagogy I probably learned from him.
I'm... kind of hoping really hard that there aren't any more funerals for me to attend anytime soon, please.
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Date: 2021-01-25 05:34 am (UTC)