Thanks to my mom and brother I was able to make it out to Chandler's funeral. It was great to be with all of my siblings, and I'm so happy that we could all be there for Chris and Tiffany. All of Tiffany's siblings but one, who was out of the country, were also there. It was a very crowded, but very loving time.
To get out to North Carolina in the least expensive manner I had to take a red eye flight. I don't sleep very well when I'm next to a stranger so I was up for over 24 hours by the time I landed in North Carolina. Chris and Tiffany very kindly let me crash on their bed for a nap until it was time to go the family viewing of Chandler. It was a very tender time.
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| Chris and Tiffany and their oldest. |
The rest of the day was spent driving to and from the airport to pick up family members and getting ready for the funeral. We also sang, a lot, and got a lot of comfort from that.
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| Garrison showing his nephew the cell phone ropes. |
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| Singing primary songs. |
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| Practicing the song they sang at the funeral. |
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| They had a captive audience. |
The next morning we had the viewing and the funeral. All of the brothers were pallbearers, I played the piano for Jayme and the kids to sing
Give Said the Little Stream (Jayme and I were both in tears - I was glad I was at the piano and not trying to sing), Tiffany created a display, Chris and both grandpas talked about Chandler, Tiffany's sisters sang the closing hymn, and the grandmas gave the prayers. Every family member was able to be involved and it was so nice.
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| This little guy struggled with the funeral a little bit. |
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| The viewing. |
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| Tiffany's display table. |
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| The darling video Tiffany and her sisters made. |
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| Chandler's wagon. |
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| Saying goodbye. |
The cemetery that Chandler is buried in is located right behind the church. We were able to take a short, nice walk to the cemetery and give our final salute to Chandler via bubbles.
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| The pallbearers and Chandler. |
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| Chris and Tiffany |
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| Chandler's siblings. |
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| The rest of the gang. |
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| Pallbearers. (My brother is in jeans because the airline lost his luggage.) |
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| Tess blowing her bubbles. |
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| Bubbles at the cemetery. |
After we took Chandler to the cemetery we had a very nice luncheon back at the church that was provided by the Relief Society. Something that helped us smile throughout the weekend, and especially at the luncheon, was playing one of Chandler's favorite games. He would randomly throw both of his arms up in the air and hold them there until everybody else put their arms up in the air.
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| Beautiful Tiffany. |
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| Our food. |
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| Some of the Holdaways. |
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| The kids. |
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| Some of the Murdocks. |
We all went back and said goodbye to Chandler one more time for the day and then headed back to the house. We all needed some distraction so we did some historical site visits, a Krispy Kreme run, a rousing game of soccer, and more singing. For the first time in my pregnant life I got swollen this day. Not just gently swollen, but intensely swollen from my feet up to my knees. I also developed a sinus infection. I mostly did a lot of sitting with ice and tissues this day.
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| There was a little bit of dress-up. |
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| Some trampoline time. |
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| Holdaway siblings - oldest to youngest. |
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| My brother, Eric, and his 'apple juice.' |
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| Soccer time - even Chris and Tiffany played. |
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| My essentials - ice water and tissues. |
The cause for the gathering was very sad, and we'll miss little Chandler and his big personality, but it was a love-filled time and I'm so grateful that I was able to be surrounded by my siblings and parents. Here are some other silly things we did while we were together.
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| We acted like us. |
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We took large group walks.
Yes. Chris is playing a banjo. |
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| Chris and Tiffany made us breakfast. |
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We sat and watched them make breakfast.
In case you can't tell, I was feeling REALLY gross by this point. |
We love you Chris and Tiffany! Thank you for letting all of this madness into your home.
