Each Breath taken is a Turn of the Page

This past week my family experienced the ultimate high and the lowest of lows.

My beautiful niece K married the love of her life N in February of this year. They were surrounded by only my sister, her boyfriend, N's parents and the Judge that married them. They were married on a loading dock where they had met at college 7 years earlier. It was the perfect setting for them. They had a reception last weekend in Madison and we had a blast-as evidenced by the above photo. The reception was last Saturday.

This Saturday we said goodbye to our Uncle Paul. The rain that has flooded the area in which I live finally gave way to a nice, cool fall day with a blue and puffy clouded sky, and peaks of sun were shining through-I believe it was Unc smiling down on us as we gathered at his home and shared stories, took pictures, saw relatives we hadn't seen in years.....and ate. We joked that we weren't sure that any group of people could out-eat a houseful of Scandanavian Lutherans! Of course, my Uncle was born and raised in Germany, but his wife Aunt Jean, our side are the Scandahovians! We eat when we are happy, we eat when we are sad. We just eat. And those counters were groaning under the weight of smoked salmon, Swedish meatballs, hotdishes of every imaginable kind, cheese, cookies, bars and of course, gallons of coffee. While I know that he will be missed by everyone he touched, we are all grateful that his pain and suffering have ended. He can dance and sing and play in Heaven. All while watching us celebrate his life and light, and watching us eat at his table.