Pa Pa's Lake Frankston

Lots has happened in our family since I last posted and I may or may not make posts about the past few weeks, but I definitely wanted to document our day yesterday. My precious father-in-law lost his battle with cancer on March 6, 2011. We celebrated his life with a funeral service here in Tyler and a memorial service at the church where he and my mother-in-law attended for 25+ years in Cedar Hill, Texas.

Yesterday was the first day in several weeks that we didn't have to be anywhere or do anything. We relaxed some at home and let Madeline catch up on her sleep. We really wanted to check on Harold's grave since we hadn't been there since his burial on Thursday the 10th and we left before everything was finished there. So, Alan, Madeline and I picked up Alan's Mom and headed south for the Frankston City Cemetery.

Just before we got to the cemetery, we stopped at Pandora's Box in Frankston. It's an interesting little place (Alan says it's just a lot of junk!) but I always enjoy looking through places like that. There's always something unique that catches your eye. They also have garden decorations and plants. Alan's Mom was specifically looking for some azaleas but she also had in mind to buy a tulip tree. There was a BEAUTIFUL tulip tree at the Hospice where Harold was and she'd mentioned planting one herself someday. Pandora's Box had several of them and she bought one to plant at home. I also learned from Lourene (my M-in-L) that they're also called saucer magnolias. I'd never heard that! If you don't know what they look like, here is a picture:

After stopping there, we went on to the cemetery. Harold's grave was all in order and the flower sprays and arrangements that were at the graveside service were placed on and around his grave. Lots of the flowers were still in wonderful shape so we decided to take some of them to put in vases at home. We felt sort of weird for a moment and Lourene even said, "Honey, we're stealing your flowers!" But, we all knew Harold would have laughed and told us to take them - he obviously didn't need them and they would just wilt in the sun! He'd want us to enjoy them. :)

Stewart Family Funeral Home had a very nice temporary marker for Harold until Lourene has time to pick out a permanent one. On a side note, words cannot express how wonderful the people are at Stewart. Chris Stewart and his staff made a difficult time much easier, and we highly recommend them.

We went on to our family's lakehouse on Lake Frankston since we were so close. Alan's parents have had a home on Lake Frankston since Alan was in middle school and it was one of Harold's favorite places to be. He loved spending time there - it's beautiful and peaceful. None of us had been there since Thanksgiving. Harold had just not felt like making the trip. I think Lourene wanted to check on a few things and asked Alan to prime the water pump so we could run the sprinkler system and prepare for spring/summer.

As we began driving down the lake road, we all got teary and Alan commented that he wasn't sure he was ready to be there. Harold loved being there so much that it was painful to be there without him. We spent several hours there while Lourene accomplished a few tasks. While Alan was working on the pump in the boathouse, a duck swam up to the pier. Lourene ran in and got some crackers to feed him. Madeline LOVED watching the duck! I was holding her while Lourene fed him, and Madeline tried very hard to get down so she could see him up close and personal! It will be fun to let her feed the ducks on her own someday.

The golf cart battery had been charging while we were waiting for the sprinkler system to run, so we decided to take a quick trip around the lake. We only made it part of the way around before we had to turn around and come back because we didn't have time to let the battery charge the whole way. Harold and Lourene loved taking golf cart rides around the lake (we all do!) and it was fun to do that together while thinking of memories of Pa Pa. We also got some cute pictures of Madeline "riding" one of the cement pigs in the front yard. We have pictures of Elissa and Bret (my niece and nephew) doing that when they were little. Alan's legal assistant, Marty, gave Madeline this cute little outfit. The front says, "What does the pig say?" and the back of it says, "Oink Oink!" Isn't she adorable? Irresistible, I think! It was a beautiful day to spend the afternoon at the lake and remember how much Harold loved being there.