Celebrating Life

We gathered with family and friends to celebrate Aunt Doll, while we had tears we also had laughter, people telling stories and sharing their memories and why we loved her like we do, how she will be missed and lessons that she taught us (my aunt Robyn agrees "No Elbows on the Table is one we all learned by being stabbed with a fork! "
I created a memories video to be played while we were at the funeral home, saved it in on a DVD just like the "tech guy" told me to do on the phone! So MP (Mama Pepper) and I arrived early, to set out the programs that PC and I made the night before, set up the photos we had and of course to make sure there were no problems with the video. The nice young man came bounding down the stairs in his 3 piece suit to introduce himself, Micheal " I thought he looked like he was 10 playing dress up ~ but he took the video and raced back up the stairs to get it hooked up. After a few minutes he comes back bouncing down to say "You did a great job on this, it's really very nice , but....we cant play it" Pretty sure my eyes flying out of their socket and the expression on my face were enough for him to "figure something out" as he raced yet again up stairs to see "what he could do"!
 UGHHHHHHHHHH are you kidding me??? I saved it in the format he told me to!! Anyways bouncing back down with his laptop he fiddled a bit and then it appeared on the screen as peo
ple were entering...minus the music...ughhh ...okay, at least we have pictures right!
Well as time passes we notice there is a black screen again, I go in search to find the little whipper snapper in the 3 piece suit......to get told he has left for the day. WTF~ seriously and the ancient man at the door tells me that yes, he said the screen would go black and that he would just shut the TV off! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? But then he adds in "This happens a lot you know" UMMM okay well that doesn't make me feel any better!
So I go back in and start talking to a few people to announce that our "Tech Guy left" I dunno maybe he had to be in before his 6pm curfew??? UGHHHH so we start to look around, the laptop in on the floor behind the coffin..... well I don't want to crawl back there! One of our guest , while I wont mention any names, because I really need my eye examine done, hopped on back there to see if he could get it to play. I had visions of us bumping the coffin and off it would fly, I mean Aunt Doll really enjoyed a good party, but she may have been annoyed with that turn of events! Maybe Aunt Doll sabotaged it herself so it wouldn't play!
Wednesday morning was the service and it was beautiful. My Papa was sitting up there in the front pew with my aunts and I, MP sat behind us and so did one of my uncles (Papa's brother). While the priest started with the smoke in the ball thingy that sparked a memory that Papa couldn't keep to himself! So he turns around in this quiet mass and says to my uncle "Remember when we were alter boys and we had the smoke going everywhere?" MP is poking him in the back to shhh, and my uncle is shaking his head as my Papa continues to start laughing and saying how they would swing it over their head and then they were on the floor" my uncle pipes in that his memory is to good, and I lean over and tell him we are going to be kicked out if he doesn't pipe down!! He just continues to laugh, as I join in , and MP keeps poking him to be quiet!
The funny thing is Aunt Doll would have expected that from him ~ so she would not have been surprised as her little brother was sitting in a quite mass as he starts laughing and telling stories! At the after party everyone that was in the back came up and wanted to know what was the ruckus he had going on up front, they could here him laughing from the back of the church! They were always the life of the


Aunt Doll and My Papa
 The Best of Friends

party! They have lived together the last few years and enjoyed Happy Hour and having a Speaker Phone! LOL ~ Oh yes, while they enjoyed a glass of wine or a vodka martini they would be on the phone to hear about everyone's day, they would have you on speaker while they would laugh and talk away! They both always have such great stories to tell!
Yes, we had tears but we also had laughter as we celebrated Aunt Doll's life, it really was a celebration of life and we all were lucky that we were able to share in that life!


P.S. And yes PC came to the celebration, and yes he was in his brown shirt and green hoody, no one seemed to notice they were all focused on how much HAIR he had, and how thick it was ~