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Oct. 26th, 2004 11:58 amAgain, thanks to all for your support. It's helped so much.
Everything went really smoothly. Hospice came out right away and took out the hospital bed and oxygen tanks. Dad and I spent most of the morning raking leaves. You would not believe the amount of leaves on her front lawn. That evening we took Grandma out to a nice dinner in true Wisconsin style: a Friday fish fry. She was really grateful to get out of the house for a while. The memorial service on Sunday afternoon was quiet. Each of his sons took a board home and filled it with photos, which were put on display for everyone to look at during the service. Lots of memories. Lots of people showed up to say goodbye. My cousins packed into the lounge to catch the Packer game. typical. Monday morning was the actual burial at the Veteran Memorial in Union Grove. I was surprised at how formal it was. There were two young Navy boys standing guard and three other army guys with rifles off to the side. Pastor Sameulsen gave his final words, then the Navy boys unfurled Grandpa's flag and held it high while taps played in the distance. The gun salute made me jump. I thought I was going to make it through without crying again but when I heard taps I lost it. We followed the cemetery rep to the wall of names and watched them open up a square for us. My cousin Erin and I got to put his ashes into the wall. It was nice of them to let us be a part of it. I was also given one of the empty shells from the gun salute.
I've had lots of things to keep me going.
Example: poking through the Sunday paper to find THIS wonderful ad. Not only will we be having Spamalot in December. Oh no. We also get Wicked in April, Les Mis in March (eh, but still my first love in musical theater) and the brand spankin new shiny pretty b'way version of Little Shop of Horrors in June. I wasn't sure if they could tour with the super huge Audrey II they use in the finale. But I guess they can! and will!
Also, Heather stole me away to the deep dark streets of Burlington Saturday night to see Nate's directorial debut in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). So. Good. The poor guys were wearing women's tights that weren't very opaque. Long manly hairs sticking out all over the place. I could have hooked them up with some decent cotton tights. Oh well. During the Hamlet portion they pulled me onstage to be Ophelia. I was really cool about it, interacting with the guys the whole time. They looked really surprised that I wasn't blushing and trying to run off the stage. My 3 years as a Bristol performer have taught me well. I was to be Ophelia in the scene right after the 'To be or not to be' speech when Hamlet flips out and is cruel to her. My cue was to scream when he told me to get to a nunnery. But for extra inspiration, they had the whole audience calling out different things that would be in her head like 'Hamlet, my biological clock is ticking. I want babies and I want them now!' and 'get thee to a nunnery' and 'put some makeup on!' The whole stage went black except for a red spotlight on me, screaming at the top of my lungs. I thought for sure Nate put them up to it but he claims he didn't. Anyone who does not have anything to do next weekend and lives in the Racine County area MUST go. Seriously. (Malt House Theater, 109 N. Main Street, Burlington)
Dad found a really fun children's version of Baron Munchausen’s stories at the Racine Public Library for me. I'm having a lot of fun reading it. It's a hardcover oversized book with lots of great watercolor illustrations in it. I won't want to give it back in 2 weeks...
Everything went really smoothly. Hospice came out right away and took out the hospital bed and oxygen tanks. Dad and I spent most of the morning raking leaves. You would not believe the amount of leaves on her front lawn. That evening we took Grandma out to a nice dinner in true Wisconsin style: a Friday fish fry. She was really grateful to get out of the house for a while. The memorial service on Sunday afternoon was quiet. Each of his sons took a board home and filled it with photos, which were put on display for everyone to look at during the service. Lots of memories. Lots of people showed up to say goodbye. My cousins packed into the lounge to catch the Packer game. typical. Monday morning was the actual burial at the Veteran Memorial in Union Grove. I was surprised at how formal it was. There were two young Navy boys standing guard and three other army guys with rifles off to the side. Pastor Sameulsen gave his final words, then the Navy boys unfurled Grandpa's flag and held it high while taps played in the distance. The gun salute made me jump. I thought I was going to make it through without crying again but when I heard taps I lost it. We followed the cemetery rep to the wall of names and watched them open up a square for us. My cousin Erin and I got to put his ashes into the wall. It was nice of them to let us be a part of it. I was also given one of the empty shells from the gun salute.
I've had lots of things to keep me going.
Example: poking through the Sunday paper to find THIS wonderful ad. Not only will we be having Spamalot in December. Oh no. We also get Wicked in April, Les Mis in March (eh, but still my first love in musical theater) and the brand spankin new shiny pretty b'way version of Little Shop of Horrors in June. I wasn't sure if they could tour with the super huge Audrey II they use in the finale. But I guess they can! and will!
Also, Heather stole me away to the deep dark streets of Burlington Saturday night to see Nate's directorial debut in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). So. Good. The poor guys were wearing women's tights that weren't very opaque. Long manly hairs sticking out all over the place. I could have hooked them up with some decent cotton tights. Oh well. During the Hamlet portion they pulled me onstage to be Ophelia. I was really cool about it, interacting with the guys the whole time. They looked really surprised that I wasn't blushing and trying to run off the stage. My 3 years as a Bristol performer have taught me well. I was to be Ophelia in the scene right after the 'To be or not to be' speech when Hamlet flips out and is cruel to her. My cue was to scream when he told me to get to a nunnery. But for extra inspiration, they had the whole audience calling out different things that would be in her head like 'Hamlet, my biological clock is ticking. I want babies and I want them now!' and 'get thee to a nunnery' and 'put some makeup on!' The whole stage went black except for a red spotlight on me, screaming at the top of my lungs. I thought for sure Nate put them up to it but he claims he didn't. Anyone who does not have anything to do next weekend and lives in the Racine County area MUST go. Seriously. (Malt House Theater, 109 N. Main Street, Burlington)
Dad found a really fun children's version of Baron Munchausen’s stories at the Racine Public Library for me. I'm having a lot of fun reading it. It's a hardcover oversized book with lots of great watercolor illustrations in it. I won't want to give it back in 2 weeks...
