The Truth

I went to my grandfathers funeral today. My mom's dad. A man I barely knew and if I am being honest, a man my mom barely knew. It was a strange experience. The tears I have shed have been for my mom. Not because I am sad that my grandfather died. But tears for my mom who has now lost both her parent. She lost her mom a little over two years ago. And I am sure today it felt like she lost her all over again. My mom's parents split when my mom was only 9. It was a split that partially was the result of infidelity on his part. As we sat there in the service this morning it was as if my grandma never existed. The man from the funeral home who was speaking stood up there and talked about when my grandfather and my mom's step-mom met, got married, and had 8 children. It is a small miracle that there was not a mass exodus from the chapel. When he was talking about how they met and first went out, I wanted to shout out that he was doing all that when he had a wife and three kids at home (and a fourth on the way)! Those 8 children "they" had consists of my mom, her three siblings, her 2 step-siblings and 2 half-siblings. And may I point out that they were not parents to my mom and her 3 siblings. They talked about how important family was to him and how much he loved his grandchildren. Tell that to the family who barely knew him.