Grandma Shirley's Memorial Service

On Friday, March 11, we celebrated the life of Steve's Mom, Shirley. It was actually her birthday, and she would have been 64 years old. The chapel was filled with friends and family from all different parts of her life. She has touched so many people and that was so evident on this day. Steve did a wonderful job with the eulogy. He managed to capture the true sense of who she was and how much she cared for everyone she came in contact with. I loved how he compared her to the woman in Proverbs 31 because she was all those things:

²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”

I was blessed to have my friend Kirk sing and play a couple of songs with me during the service, including Jim and Shirley's favorite hymn, Amazing Grace. It meant a lot to us to have good friends present to help during such a difficult day.

Christie picked out the flowers on behalf of Aunt Nancy, and she did an amazing job. They were seriously beautiful! After the service, Aunt Nancy had a FABULOUS idea of what to do with the flowers, and the next day I took the bouquets to the hospital that Shirley had spent time in. I dropped them off at the nurses desk and explained that they were from her memorial service and that she was the kind of person that would love it if they could be passed on to someone who needed some love and encouragement. Perhaps they could go to a few patients that were discouraged, lonely or sad. The nurses remembered Shirley and were so touched at the sentiment, promising to deliver the flowers to the "right" people. After returning to my car, I prayed that those flowers would touch someone's heart like Shirley had touched all of our lives.


Steve came up with a wonderful idea and instead of having a sign-in guest book at the service, each person or family wrote on an index card which will be scanned in and included with photographs to create a memory album. It's going to be done digitally so we can all have a copy of it. Also, along with the program, Christie had the great idea of passing out packets of Forget Me Not seeds with the saying "Shirley Belknap, she planted the seeds of love, hope and faith in all of us".


After the service, Christie's family hosted a wonderful reception at a restaurant nearby. The food was fabulous and it was nice to relax after a stressful morning. Shirley shared her birthday with Christie's son Luke, so we also took the opportunity to sing Happy Birthday to him that evening.


And of course the highlight for my kids was running around with their cousins.


All in all it was a wonderful (but tearful) celebration of an amazing woman. It is heartbreaking to think she will not be around for us and our kids any longer. But we are thankful that she is in a much better place now.