Today was Uncle George Jakeman's funeral. He's the husband of my mom's step-sister, Aunt Lyle. It was nice to go to the mortuary last night and see Aunt Lyle and my cousins: Linda, Judy, George Leslie, Elaine and Lorraine. We were close as cousins growing up and spent a lot of time at their house in Orem or vice versa. Elaine and Lorraine are twins and they're about seven months older than I am. I remember when I was young I used to feel so sorry for them having to live in Orem because Orem didn't have a "downtown." There was no place you could go and say that you were "downtown." All they had in Orem was big long State Street with stores and businesses on each side. (That fact hasn't changed much today.) I thought that was so weird and I felt sorry for them, because when I was young I used to love to go to downtown Provo. I remember once when I was probably about 6 or 7 my mom let me take some money I had earned and walk downtown by myself with some friends and go to a store and buy something I chose with the money I earned. Anyway, I got off the subject. But funerals have a way of causing you to relive past days. So it was good to see everyone last night and good, also, today to go to the funeral. I saw more people from my past. Uncle Myron and Aunt Doris were there. Uncle Myron Adair is my mom's step-brother and Lyle's brother. When I was young we also saw a lot of Uncle Myron and Aunt Doris and their children. Their daughter, Vickie, was also my age. I haven't seen Myron and Doris for a long time, so it was good to see them, too. Uncle Myron gave a really nice family prayer. It was good to be there and to hear such a nice prayer. Then I got to see Uncle Gary and Aunt Beverly Adair. Gary is mom and Lyle and Myron's half brother. I have probably seen more of Gary and Beverly in my older years than any of my other aunts and uncles, but we haven't seen them for a long time it seems. Uncle Gary is 72 years old! That's the same age my dad was when he passed away 20 years ago. Gary seems older, but still not as old as Dad was when he passed away. THEN, I saw Uncle Neldon Adair. He was there with his son, James. Neldon is the younger brother of Gary, and half-brother to all the other siblings. He was also my favorite uncle growing up. But he got caught up in polygamy a long time ago and has been alienated from the family for many years. Probably the last time I saw him was at my dad's funeral 20 years ago. So Neldon walked in for the family prayer and stood right by me and I didn't even know who he was. Then Beverly told me that was Neldon! Gary, Bev and I had a chance to greet him before the sevice started, and he was happy to see us, although he couldn't actually "see" us because he is blind. But we were unable to find him after the service, so we didn't see him again. But at least we saw him for a few minutes. The funeral itself was very nice and I learned a lot about Uncle George that I hadn't known before. I always knew he was a hard worker, but I never realized how hard he had worked and the number of jobs he had worked at in order to make a living for his family. When Leslie gave his talk, he said once when they were complaining about the food they were having to eat, that his dad reminded them of how he had had to go hungry some times as a little boy. Then Leslie said, "But you've never had to go hungry since you had us." And that was right, because he had provided a good life for his family and he worked hard at it. His son-in-law, John Chestnut, Lorraine's husband, said that he was there along with the rest of the family when George died and that George was at peace and ready to go, knowing he had lived a good life. So it was nice to be there and to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins and to remember Uncle George and past times growing up.
Yesterday I said that Steven and I were going to Cracker Barrel to have that baked chicken and apple dish (at least I was), but when we got there they were out of it! So I ended up having meatloaf and Steven had roast beef. It was pretty good, but I was looking forward to that chicken and apple dish. We ended up not going to the T's afterall, because when we called, they weren't home.
Then today after the funeral I went to Dave and Tamera's for the bridal shower for Michael's fiancee, Sarah. She sure seemed a little grouchy or moody or something and didn't seem to be enjoying the festivities at all. Let's hope she was just having a bad day.
I'm glad Tiffany had fun in Springfield today and that things are "moving along" for her and Greg. She leaves for South Carolina two weeks from today.
Well, I'll turn my watch back one hour since we go off daylight savings time tonight, and head to bed. Adios.
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