So, the plan was.....baby shower for my daughter on good friday, first birthday for my neice's baby on easter sunday, 50th aniversary party on saturday. Since most of the "out of towners" were planning on being here for easter. It was a good plan. Except my sister's husband died on March 30. Shock of all shock. It's my husband's sister that has cancer and is in a hospice on a DNR. We bought plane tickets to fly up to see her on the sunday April 1st. But Bob died on Friday morning. Blood clot in his lung. And we thought maybe the pain was a gall stone. Huge mistake. Only 54, one year to retirement. So Sad. Needless to say it was a mad rush to leave town, plans had to be cancelled, tickets cancelled, showers and birthday parties cancelled. The funeral was finally on thursday. It was the longest week of everyone's life. My sister is still probably wondering "what's going on" . Everyone is in such shock.
Unfortunatly I brow beat a few people into taking time off work and travelling here for easter (for those not originally planning on being here for easter). It wasn't until tuesday that I remembered to call them to say I wouldn't be here for the shower and it was cancelled. A few people came anyway for the weekend. Good thing my daughter works in a hotel and got good rates for them. So they're all out shopping today. EAster has been cancelled here.
Most funerals of my family go something like....Service, burial, meal, wake. Well this one had a service all right (two days before many people got together to prepare the meal even) then the burial started out fine. The procession (about 20 miles) from service to grave site. The coffin was put on the mechanism to lower it. The coffin started to go down, but them BOTH strapes broke and the coffin tipped over and fell 8 or so feet down. The funeral director looked like he wanted to jump into the hole. It was one of the largest attended funerals in the area. Including those who came to the grave yard. It was the most amazing thing I've even witnessed. THe casket broke apart at the bottom - the body was sort of half exposed, the sides of the coffin were split away. What a mess. My mother went histerical, his son soon followed. I gotta give my Sister credit she was pissed at my mother for making such a scene. She was just standing there with this look of "what the f*@^" on her face. Everyone was stunned. I still have a chuckle evertime I think back on it. When you think about it, it's kinda, sorta funny. And Bob loved a good joke. My husband informed me that he wants to be buried just like that. I think my sister still can't believe that anything - including his death even happened. I told her that Bob probably didn't like the casket, and refused to be buried in it. Or maybe he wanted to be cremated. So everyone had to leave, we all went back 20 miles to the hall and ate the meal, then waited for the hearse to come back (she had to pick out another casket - picked a solid steel one this time - probably on the house, it was a beautiful one) then we had to drive back (another 20 miles) to the grave site. This time they used ropes and the pulley system to lower it. So a funeral that should have been over by 2pm wasn't over until 5:30. My sister will be hearing about this burial forever. It was quite the ordeal to get the mess out of the hole. I won't even go into that part. Unfortunately for the funeral home, my neice's husband is a lawyer. And I was there with my camera. Not a good day. But surely a memoral one. Then after the funeral I had to drive 650 km back. I got home about 1:30 AM and I'm still bagged today. I'm just sitting here drinking arbor mist and eating ding dongs. I did manage to get four jars of funeral borsch though. 
I had some for lunch today, they never add garlic, so I do. Funeral and wedding borsch is the best. It's even worth the gas afterwards.
Not beet borsch but cabbage. With lots and lots of butter. Yummy.
