Welcome home

Yesterday we went over to the funeral home to pick up mom's ashes. Yeah, the urn at the memorial service was empty, but that was our little secret.

She was a lot heavier than I expected. The urn is mostly white with some really pretty purple flowers on it. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but mom's tendency to wear pink in the last few months of her life really made an impression on lots of people. Therefore pinks and purples tended to get high priority when making decisions for the services.

Traci and I also got little keepsake mini-urns in the shape of hearts. They're just the right size to fit in the palm of my hand and have a comforting weight to them. Traci got pink and she was wearing her pink sweatshirt when we picked them up. I got blue with birds on it (representing those 'wings' she tried to give us) and I was wearing my customary 3-4 shades of blue that day, so I guess we picked the right things.

Our mantle at home is already kind of full and I really wasn't sure I wanted to look at the urn all the time so instead I put it on the bookshelf in my office, which seems pretty fitting. I'm really glad she didn't opt to get stuck in a box in the ground. I like having her around a lot better.

Traci got started on the house this week. We're not exactly sure what's going to happen with it, but either way, all the stuff has to be gone through and moved. Traci is taking most of the furniture with her to D.C. to furnish her new apartment.

After two days, we're not even through going through the clothes. I get tired just walking through the front door, thinking of all the stuff that has to be done. And of course, I can't help thinking that I'd much rather still have a mom, than all this stuff.