Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Weekend That Was

If you read this post you will know that our family lost a special person recently: a son, brother, nephew, cousin, uncle and friend to all.

We went up to spend time with the family and attend his Memorial which was held on 19/11/11.

I am fortunate that I live within easy reach of my family, but  My Man's family is too far away for a weekend hang out or a spontaneous dinner date.

It was a lovely memorial with the hall full of family, family friends and young people who knew him, loved him and will miss him.

As I sat there, I felt emotional listening to the reams of FB posts from friends and family talking about how awesome he was and how much fun he was to be around. I couldn't help feeling "Damn! We miss out living so far away!"   I found myself emotional for being so far away from them. I felt we had lost out on being a part of his life and he being a part of ours.

It was a difficult weekend - but it was so good that we could go and be with the family.
  
Bulleted list of "My Most" of the weekend:
  • My most heartwarming moment was seeing My Man and his brother standing at the braai together and joking around. It was one of the moments in the weekend that I wanted to freeze, or grab and not let go of.  I wish we could do this more often. It just made me realise again that family is so precious and life is fragile - really treasure the time that you have together. 
  


  • My most funny moment was when we got into our hired new automatic Polo 1600 and it wouldn't start. The gears wouldn't move, the brakes were solid and the key turned but nothing happened. After much debate as to whether the radio was left on, or the lights, My Man eventually phoned the Call Centre to which the lovely lady on the other side said: "Have you perhaps locked your steering wheel?"  Oops. Yes. Let me say no more about that! :-)
  • My most daunting was driving on that coastal road! I have NEVER EVER seen taxi's and cars who use the painted yellow islands as overtaking lanes.
  • My most inspirational moment was when my niece stood up at the memorial and shared memories of her cousin. What a brave girl!
  • My most thoughtful was the banner my nephew and his friend had made for everyone to write their final farewells on.
  • My most 'yay' conversation my sister-in-law saying they were going to come and spend a week or so with us next year. I can't wait and am already making plans!
  • My most goose-bump moment, was hearing all the big bikes arrive at the memorial and seeing these bikers, men and women, in their colours, coming to share this day. What made it more intense is that my sister-in-laws husband passed away about 4 yrs ago, and he was biker.... we were blown away by their kindness, generosity and care for the family then too.
  • My kodak moment was My Girl and My Brother-in-Law chatting in the rain at the braai.
 

  • My most enjoyable  time was every moment spent with the family.

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.
Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." 
~ Jane Howard ~

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful Lisa, thank you for sharing this. Sha-ness

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  2. Allie says:
    Yes lovely and poignant post, Lis
    Thanks for this window into the weekend
    XX

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  3. Thanks for sharing this post. Family and friends sure are precious and life is fragile.

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  4. Condolence on you. BTW I am your new follower hope you could follow me back. I added you in my links. Thanks and have a happy weekend again.

    here's my url: mr837.blogspot.com

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  5. Lots of love and hugs my friend. Thanks for sharing. xxx

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  6. thkx lisa for sharing your precious moments in your family's time of sadness, family is so precious and only borrowed for a short span of time, it is a pity when one does not make the most of that precious time, your family are bound and blessed by lotsa love unity and caring a great example for us all to follow,thank you my friend.

    ReplyDelete

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