September 13 My Aunt Janice Carol

Wednesday:  There is a LOT to post about! My Aunt Jan passed away September 3 (while my brother, David, was up from Florida for our siblings weekend). We later found out that her funeral was scheduled for today (September 13). My brother had to return to Florida to run his business, and didn't really think he would be able to make it back to Michigan for my aunt's funeral.

BUT ... low and behold ... David discovered he had unused "free" miles and a after a little bit of fussing around with plane schedules and how he would get from the airport to the funeral, etc., he ended up coming! Terry, Ruthanne, and I picked him up out in Northville (where he had ubered from the airport) and made it to the visitation prior to the funeral, and then were able to stay for the dinner and family photo shoot and chatting afterwards. I'm going to break this into two separate posts because of all of the pictures.

Here are the "posed" family grouping pictures:

For some reason, I was designated the "family photographer" for this event, even after protesting that I am a LANDSCAPE photographer (100% amateur) and, other than grandchildren, I am NOT at all good at photographing PEOPLE ... I had no choice but to accept my commission and ... snap pictures!

I'll try to list names of people (if I know them). 

Dan Head, Richard and Sally Hornick, ?, ?, Ronnie?

During the funeral service, I sat directly next to Dan Head (not knowing who he was). It turns out that Dan is a cousin of my dad's (Alma--my grandfather's sister--being his mother). The woman right next to my Aunt Sally is unknown to me (she did tell me her name, but I cannot remember it), and then I think the next woman is married to Ronnie (the man on the end)--who also is a cousin of my dad's (Paul Holtzhouse being his dad).

This next pictures is of ALL the cousins present at the funeral. Of the 18 cousins that I have 15 were there. WOW.

Oops--this random picture got in here somehow ... this is Ruthanne, David, Suzi and Sharon.

These are my Aunt Jan's children (all six of them) and their spouses.

Aunt Jan's six children (minus spouses).

These are some (not nearly all) of my Aunt Jan's grandchildren + spouses ...

... and these are some of her great-grandchildren.

The funeral service was held at InterCity Baptist Church, where my Aunt Jan attended for the last 50 years (or so) of her life. The service as full of people who she loved and served for many years. We sang two of her favorite songs: "In Christ Alone" and "Great is Thy Faithfulness" (two of my favorites as well!). My cousin, Don (her eldest child) gave a very nice eulogy, and her pastor gave the sermon from her favorite passage: Proverbs 3:5-6. My Aunt Jan would have been very pleased with the words that were spoken. The Gospel was clearly proclaimed! What would we do without His amazing grace?

I have a bunch of different memories of my Aunt Jan, none of which I shared publicly at the funeral. They were passing a microphone around after the dinner for people to talk, but I don't do well in those circumstances--besides, some of my memories are too private and some would not be appropriate to share at all in that setting.

My aunt was just 18 when she married my Uncle Skip. They had their firstborn the very next year, and went on to have 5 more children. At one time, my family and Jan's family lived in a duplex together. Jan's family was upstairs, and we were downstairs (on Sussex Street, Detroit). I was five when we moved from that house. I do remember hot summer afternoons when we cousins played together in the small backyard. My Aunt Jan would bring sheets outside and hang them over the clothes lines to make "tents" for us, and then we would eat our peanut butter - and - jelly sandwiches under the tent. 

My aunt was hard on her kids when they were little--maybe she was overwhelmed. She was terribly young to have all of the children she did--plus there was stuff going on in her life that I didn't know about at the time. I do know that when her children were grown and gone, she had softened quite a bit and was very fervent about her walk with the Lord. She and I had just a few private conversations later in my life--mostly about the bad things that had happened in our childhoods. I remember the shock I felt seeing the tears roll down her face after 70 years having passed since her abuse. But she at least understand mine--and I hers. 

The other thing I want to say is how completely kind Aunt Jan always was to my mother (who was difficult, even on a good day). My mom was a lonely only child. Aunt Jan always ALWAYS treated my mom as a BLOOD sister (as opposed to just a sister-in-law), and my mom was truly touched and blessed by this. Aunt Jan was a good and faithful friend to my mom right up to her death. It was not an easy task, but Aunt Jan did it.