Special Time

Our trip to Vancouver for my Aunt Margaret's funeral was amazing. The funeral turned out to be a wonderful tribute to my Aunt. It also turned out to be a beautiful day in Vancouver as well. The sun was shining, no rain and clouds like the day before, and sunshine and blue sky welcomed everyone who came to pay tribute. What a beautiful location. Also, I have never seen the entire process before ...  but family stayed until the end. The 'end' being the lowering of the coffin into the vault, covering it with the vault lid and then the covering in with the dirt. The staff did a wonderful job and quickly covered it, cleaned it up, washed the headpieces of the surrounding gravesites and the bobcat and the trailer slowly moved off the premise, leaving the coffin freshly turned and covered in flowers. The entire process took about an hour. 





Lowering the casket



This was a time for family only. To start with we had the funeral, then the viewing of the body by everyone and then a time of fellowship and refreshments. Then only the family went to the burial and closure. Quite a process but deeply moving. You definitely realize what death and burial is when it is complete. Life is short.



Aunt Margaret's Resting Place




Just a few of the cousins!

 A time of fellowship followed for the family and close friends at Margaret's daughter's home in Richmond. Getting to it from Surrey was a 'trip' in itself. However, it was a great time of getting to meet those cousins we had never met but heard of, those we knew but had not seen for years and the ones we keep fairly regular contact with and wanted to embrace and encourage. A wonderful fellowship time. It was too bad Aunt Margaret could not be there also!