Heavy Hearts

Tomorrow I am getting up at 0'dark 30 to go to a Memorial Service for a dear friend of mine's niece.  She was 24 and died of an asthma attack in her sleep early Sunday morning.  I knew the young woman, a lovely girl, from DAR. She was in one of our sister chapters.  I am going early, the service starts at 8AM, so I can help the family out with some details. I told them I would do whatever they wanted and I meant it. I was emphatic and called twice reemphasizing my ability to help.  I'm glad they took me to task. 
 
I attend funerals frequently. I personally think they are more important than weddings at this point, as morbid as it sounds.   They are for the healing of the families and friends and assisting in that is of the utmost importance for me when dealing with people I care about.  Since I started blogging in June, I have blogged twice on them, once on one I could not attend because it was for a child and I'm just not THAT strong, and before that, more of a funny post, on a woman I know whose slacker son couldn't pull it together to plan her damn funeral.  Trust me, that is just the tip on what will happen this year.  I have told a couple friends of mine, "Sometimes I feel like the Mistress of the Grim Reaper".  Of course it is to be expected when you hang out with as many elderly women as I do and I do typically handle their deaths fairly well.  It is the death of the young or the tragedies that I do not deal with well. 
 
But tomorrow I will be what I need to be for these women, although inside, my heart will be breaking.