bereavement

It's an odd sort of thing, having someone die.

Since my nanna died on Wednesday, we've had some wonderful family time. I spent the weekend with various aunts, uncles and cousins at Poppa's house.

We swung wildly between happy normality as we enjoyed our time together and intense sadness as we remembered the reason we were all together. Half the time we were laughing and splashing in the pool, the other half we were crying as we wrote eulogies, accepted condolences over the phone and put together pictures of Nanna for her funeral.

And it was a great funeral. Over 250 people came together to celebrate Nanna's life, and to honour her God.

The words that were said over and over again to describe Nanna were: prayerfulness, time for people, generosity and commitment. Nanna was always one to challenge us to follow Christ more. And even at her funeral, she was still challenging me by the testimony she left behind.

We came home with 20 minutes to prepare for youth group at our house. And I decided that rather than say, "It's all too much for me", I would do what Nanna would have done, and make the chocolate milk, smile and welcome the young people and extend myself to serve others.

I want to have the sort of funeral that Nanna had. So I'd better start living the sort of Christian life she led.

Praise God.