I traveled to Dauphin Manitoba this past weekend to say good bye to the last of the Small family. My moms last brother passed away and all of the first cousins traveled to attend his memorial as well as spend some time together remembering the great days of childhood at grandma and grandpas.
The night before the memorial, I couldn’t sleep well and the same thing kept running through my mind. “In all things a blessing” ran through my head over and over for most of the night.
Yes, we were there to lay to rest the last of a family, but I realized that they weren’t truly gone. All of us were there and they lived in us, their ways, thoughts, lessons, strengths and weaknesses all stay alive through their legacy.
I think my blessing was two-fold in this. The first was of course time with my cousins and being all together. The second in realizing that while we can mourn and miss those who have passed, we can smile at they live on with us and are always with us.