Irreverently hilarious

My husband's great-aunt, Ann, died this past weekend. She and her husband (who's been gone for 15 years now) played a big part in my husband's life over the years. Her death, however, was really a wonderful thing. She had a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ, so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's in heaven. As she had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the past 10 years, I know that celebrating Christmas in heaven with Jesus Himself was much preferable to spending another Christmas in the fog of dementia down here.

The reviewal was last night, and we made the 3-hour drive to attend as a family. This is the first death in the family that our children have been aware of, so we spent quite a bit of time explaining to them what they would see and experience before we made the trip. We carefully explained to them that although they would see Aunt Ann's body, the part of Aunt Ann that made her Aunt Ann - her soul - is now up in heaven with Jesus. So hard for concrete little minds to grasp.

When we arrived at the chapel last night, the kids really wanted to go up front to see Aunt Ann in the casket. We felt it was better for them to experience the honest reality of the situation than to prevent them from doing so and add to the unsettling aura surrounding death. So, as a family, we went up to see Aunt Ann. There were a few predictable questions from the oldest two kids - "She looks like she's sleeping." "Can she hear us?" "Can we touch her?" - and then came the question from our youngest daughter that had our whole family in gut-wrenching, snort-producing laughter...grandparents included. As she looked calmly at Aunt Ann's face, and then slowly moved her gaze down the casket toward the closed bottom half, she leaned in toward me and asked, "Mommy...did Jesus only take Aunt Ann's legs to heaven?"

Yep, that did it. Quiet and reverant ambiance shot right through. My mother-in-law was kind enough to pull back the little curtain and show our daughter that Auntie Ann's feet were still there. The really fun part about that story, however, is what Aunt Ann's reaction would have been if she were still alive. She had a tremendous sense of humor and was quite a prankster. She would have been bent over in stitches herself if she would have heard that! Best practical joke ever! I'm pretty sure she was giggling with Jesus over that one! The whole situation inspired our family to imagine ingenious ways to freak people out at our own funerals. My mother-in-law wants her body wired up with some sort of device that senses motion and causes her tongue to stick out everytime someone comes to look at her. Someone else suggested a whoopie cushion noise instead.

That's our family. Funerals. Good times! :-)

Merry Christmas!!!