Goodness where to begin.
Last Thursday my grandpa Valentine passed away. He was 90 years old and passed away peacefully in his sleep. My sister flew in from Alaska and family came in from Washington for the funeral which was on Sunday. Ajax spent a few hours at the funeral service, but didn’t understand why “that man was sleeping.” Ajax has actually been to a few funerals and this was the only one where he even noticed the casket. We didn’t elaborate, but simply said he was resting and Ajax was ok with that explanation. The rest of the time he was happy to explore the funeral home and get attention from all the adults.
As my grandpa was a veteran he was buried at a national cemetery in Holly, Michigan, on Monday, which is just over an hour from us. The service was at 2:30 pm and there were about 20 family members and close friends in attendance. Ajax did fairly well through the service and stood in silence/shock when they fired the rifles. Afterwards was a luncheon and honestly for what we asked of him, Ajax did quite well. We then hustled my cousin, Andre, to the airport and made it home for a late bath and bed.
We also squeezed in a work Christmas party on Saturday in Lansing, which Ajax loved. The entire party was actually planned around him (as I am the only person in the department with a nino). The party was at 2:30 on a Saturday. Ajax had a blast and ate nothing but M&Ms for dinner (thanks to some very helpful coworkers).
Tuesday I ended up staying home with Ajax as our babysitter called us at 6:15 am to say she had the stomach flu. Although I did not enjoy missing work, I wasn’t feeling well and had a terrible headache. So overall, I guess it was fate that I stay home. Ajax also needed the down time and although we did get dressed around 1 pm, we never left the house.
