This afternoon, I am attending the funeral of a friend of my future in-laws. I only met him once, and he was already cancer-ravaged by that point, but GTB and the rest of his family loved him dearly. And, as they say, you don’t attend a funeral for the one who has died–you go to support those they he or she left behind. <\/p>\n
In preparation for this funeral, I put on a black suit that last saw the light of day at Matt’s funeral 16 months ago. I was skinnier then. The skirt wasn’t so tight. I’m also wearing the shoes I bought for Joe and Tracey’s wedding. And the pearl earrings I got for being a bridesmaid in Laura’s wedding.<\/p>\n
Every piece of clothing feels wrapped in emotion and history. It sounds weird, and probably overly dramatic, I know. But I’m concious of every shred of fabric, the slingbacks that don’t stay up on the back of my ankles, and the little jewels adorning my ears. I can feel them at every moment.<\/p>\n
And it feels very grown up. To have clothes that are this old but still classic enough to wear 8 years after I bought them. The kind of clothes you wear to funerals. <\/p>\n
If not for the happy memories associated with the pearls and the ill-fitting shoes, I’d really hate this suit.<\/p>\n
But then I remember that last time I wore this suit, I was holding my nephew Jack. He had just turned 2 then, and was still little enough to carry around on my hip for long periods of time. I spent most of the post-funeral reception holding onto Jack. Both because it kept distant relatives from asking me if I had kids, and because it kept me from breaking down at the thought of missing Matt. There really is something about having a new life in your arms to remind you that life goes on.<\/p>\n
I’m nervous about attending this funeral today. And I realize how selfish that is. And I feel bad about it. <\/p>\n
And I kinda hate this suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This afternoon, I am attending the funeral of a friend of my future in-laws. I only met him once, and he was already cancer-ravaged by that point, but GTB and the rest of his family loved him dearly. And, as they say, you don’t attend a funeral for the one who has died–you go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}