~~~

Thursday Evening and Friday Morning

July 13 & 14

~~~

We left home at 6 am on Thursday morning in a two-car caravan. Our driver was Diana (granddaughter) with her dad Jeff in the passenger seat. Our daughter Deb drove her car with our daughter-in-law Chris as a passenger. Jere and Kristen left a few hours later because of a morning appointment.

Eight hours later we were crossing the bridge into Maine. We still had more than an hour to our motel in Auburn.

By 6 pm we were at the funeral home for the visitation. The delivery van Hannah used to deliver milk (sometimes meat) to local customers was parked in front of Pinette, Dillingham and Lynch.

I didn’t take photos of all the displays but did photograph some of Hannah’s paintings. She loved going to paint night.

Hannah was a fan of ladybugs and often painted a tiny bug on her paintings. You can see one on the bottom of the bud stem.

The lighting was a little better for photos of the delivery van by the end of the visitation.

I asked Danny Bisson and his wife (who brought the van) to pose in front of it.

I think the visitation and funeral were as healing for the Bisson family (her employer) as it was for our family.

Hannah’s youngest sister, Lydia, wanted a picture with Danny.

We were back at the funeral home the next morning for the 9 am visitation. There was a slide show of Hannah at a variety of ages. I especially liked this slide of Hannah and Elijah. Elijah was her little brother who died at the age of five months following surgery for a heart deformity. I could have titled it “Together Again.”

Both visitations and the funeral were well attended.

Hugging her friend Karen

Barb, Beth, Diane, Karen

Her friends Barb, Beth and Karen surprised Diane by driving to the memorial service from Pennsylvania. They have been friends since Sunday school days in the ’70s.

Jeff captured a picture of Diana and her grandpa entering the funeral home just before the service.

The memorial service began at 11 am.

Mark and Diane’s friend and minister Mark Bucher shared a message of hope and encouragement from the Bible.

The people who honored our family by coming to the visitation and service were healing for my heart – as well as the comments and songs. A highlight was a video at the end of the service, it was of Hannah signing to the song Amazing Grace. It was taken several years ago when she was learning to do sign language.

Left to right Diane’s friends and my sister’s family: My sister Nancy, Barb, Karen (Nancy’s daughter), Beth, Karen and Melissa (Nancy’s daughter).

Nancy and her daughters brought a lot of breakfasts and meals in half a dozen ice chests, so Diane doesn’t have to cook for her family during the next few days. The food came from a variety of aunts, uncles and cousins. There was also money to help with the cost of the funeral and a large gift card to Starbucks. Many of the Myers family went to Starbucks on Saturday. Diane said there is still money on the gift card. 🙂

We were surprised and honored that our Transport For Christ friends Paul and Debbie came from Canada (not far from Nova Scotia). They attended the visitation on Thursday evening and memorial service on Friday morning.

The flowers from either side of the casket were placed in a funeral vehicle prepared for the gravesite.

I will post some pictures from the burial service and meal in my next entry.