the safety

Jared's paternal grandmother, Nana, passed away on Tuesday morning. We had the visitation and funeral service today. Nana was 82 years old and passed away on her 55th wedding anniversary to Granddaddy. Nana is now buried next to her son, Robbie. It was a gorgeous sunny day. I am plum exhausted. We had a group of people over to our home after the service for lunch. Apparently, this is a very Southern tradition and although I was raised in the south, my parents were raised in the west and I guess I missed that traditional upbringing somewhere along the way. However, I think I covered pretty well. The house was clean, I baked cookies, Scout was a ball of happiness, and I received each loaf of white bread with love. Apparently, love after a funeral is expressed with white bread, honey ham, milo's sweet tea, and dessert.

I've been learning about marriage vows lately. When Jared and I stated our vows that day, we didn't know that there would be a nephew with cancer, a sick father, a dying grandmother. We couldn't have known. I was focused simply on the two of us that day, but my view on wedding vows has expanded. We committed to a whole host of things, to a host of emotions, to the beautiful and the ugly, the joyful and the painful. My father told me once that he had no idea what he was doing when he got married. And I don't think that anyone really does. I made my promise and that covers the knowns and the unknowns. It allows for growth, for pain, for life all within the safety of that promise. I guess I'm trying to say that I was thinking of "in sickness and in health" related to just the two of us, "for richer or for poorer" regarding the two of us, "for better or for worse" for the two of us. I didn't think about those things in context of our families and friends and dealing with those issues relevant to us, but outside of our coupledom.

Ahhh, life. How interesting.