R.I.P. Auntie Elha

I went to Regina for the funeral services for my Aunt that passed away from Lung Cancer. It was a tough 3 days but it was also a really great weekend as well. The dichotomy btween grieving and celebrating her life was undeniably with me over the last 3 days. I like to think of each and every one of my Aunts and Uncles as surrogate Mothers and Fathers to me and every one of my cousins. I might not get along with each of them sometimes but I know that they'd be there for me. Losing anyone in my family is incomprehensible but it's a fact of reality. I think that I got most of my grief out at the viewing on Friday. I did cry during the service and burial on Saturday too but I was mostly spent by the end of Friday. My feelings towards my Aunt weren`t deeply articulated during the good times but they really solidified as she slowly suffered from Cancer. I always admired and loved her sense of humor. She started to become more somber and downbeat as the cancer came and spread. She always was the same quietly caring woman we all knew right until the very end. The hardest parts of the weekend were seeing my Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and my Aunts immediate family get very emotional. Each and every one of us, from the oldest individual to the youngest niece, nephew, grandchild, great grandchild, friend and acquaintance were broken down during the weekend. On a positive note, I was able to see and spend time with family that I hadn`t seen in a really long time. I caught up with a few cousins from Chicago that I`ve really missed. It solidified how funny and entertaining it is when all the Canada family gets together with the family in the U.S. Also caught up with Canadian family from Calgary that I don`t see often enough. Hell, I even bonded deeper with my Cousins`Casey and Cailee`s dog. A stressful but wonderful celebration of one life indeed.