A Celebration of Life

My Father passed away last Wednesday morning. He had been in hospital since March 19th after a fall that broke his hip. We had the funeral on Thursday. The minister who officiated did a wonderful job. I asked him to make the service a celebration of my Father's life and to acknowledge his incredible generosity to my sister and I.

Last fall after my sister attended the funeral of a friends Mother she spoke to me about the possibility of pre-arranging my Fathers funeral. We decided that it would be a good idea to make the decisions while we weren't distraught with grief. We met with a lovely young women who specialized in pre-arrangements. One of the things she suggested was that we write our eulogies at that time. We did and it was such a good idea as we were both able to focus on the happy times. We wrote about the passions of his life, our mother, carpentry, reading, gardening, music, our many cats and theatre. Neither of us felt up to reading them ourselves at the service so the minister read them for us.

I'm so glad that I wasn't working. It meant that I was able to spend long hours at the hospital during his last few days. My sister's office gave her an emergency leave so we were there together. I also want to thank all of our friends who were so supportive during this sad time. My husband and I are having a quiet weekend at home to decompress and I look forward to getting back our normal lives. I'll be keeping those happy memories in mind as I start to plant my own garden this summer and when I listen to music or pet my own two dear cats. So from my Dad's favourite musical Fiddler on the roof a toast.

To life! To life! L'chai-im! L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!