My mother had a beautiful ceremony. I was able to go to another church, sit there, and listen to the preacher/s without feeling guilty. My mother and sister had made previous preparations for her burial. My mother had chose the casket, which was beautiful; she knew where she was going to be buried, and she knew who was going to do the ceremony. Everything was taken care of.
Getting back to the preachers, they were members of our extended family. The "Bishop" is my mother's brother-in-law, his sons are all preachers (two of whom spoke at the funeral), and there was an Elder Pastor that has always been at the hospital for the family (the one that I was rude to). They all had a different preaching approach. All of them were moving. They KNEW my mother. Actually, the Bishop said it's so easy to preach about a person that you know. He said I don't have to get up here and make up something. Everybody in the audience laughed.
There was a part where the family members were allowed to give a speech or thought on mom. I can't remember who all got up there, but there were several of my neices that got up there. They all struggled through their tears to try to talk. We had to tell one of them to take a breath, more than once. My daughter got up there and told the story of how my mother wanted to take her from me. Not because I was a bad mother, but because she loved her so much. Everybody laughed at that too. My mother had thirteen kids and was trying to take mine. She kept telling me that you can have another one. I kept saying MOM? Are you serious?
My mom wore a white dress (she had chose the dress two weeks prior to her becoming ill), so all of the family were to try to dress in white. I had a white jacket with a white mock turtle neck top with a black skirt. I dressed my youngest daughter somewhat like me, but more in the teenage style. My husband came and he looked smart in his black suit. That's one thing about being a witness or associate, most of the men are going to have several suits on hand! I just bought him a new tie, white shirt, and black shoe. Did you know that they've got these shoes with gel soles built into them?! My husband just loved it!
At the burial ground, my neices released doves. It was beautiful.
I think that I'm going to have to start visiting churches. I really enjoyed the preacher's sermons. I was suprised at my self?