Goin' "Down Home"

These days, we find ourselves going "Down Home" for family reunions or funerals. Today we went down for a funeral. My Great Aunt Hannah passed away at the age of 93 after a brief illness while in the hospital recovering from successful surgery. Fortunately, until two weeks ago, she was feeling fabulous, so we are blessed to have had her on this earth for so long. The service was lovely, honoring my Great Aunt perfectly.

The funeral was out at a country church in Southwest Minnesota. I, Kyle, my brother Eric, sisters Jolene and Jeanine and Jeanine's son, Nick all traveled down in one vehicle. It has been a long time we adults have been together to just visit, so a combined six hours stuck together in a car was really an enjoyable time.

It was an incredibly gorgeous day with a light breeze and not a cloud in the sky. It's no wonder why it's always so nice to be down there, no matter the reason.

The cool thing about small town funerals is the familiar environment it offers. Everything you could imagine about a cliche church basement luncheon was exactly on point here. As we entered the church, we were greeted by the wafts of hot-dish. Yum! One could hear the glass dishes clinking against each other and the folding chairs skidding on the floor as the ladies from the funeral luncheon circle got everything set while we filed into the church. After the service and interment, we proceeded to the church basement and found a spot at one of the many tables practically set with plates, water glasses, coffee cups, coffee carafe, creamer powder, sugar packets, water pitcher, salt and pepper packets, a pickle / relish dish, a salad bowl, a basket of buttered breads / buns, and a glass platter with a variety of homemade cupcakes.

The salads varied from table to table. Most were some variety of jello salad. Some had fruit set in the jello, others had fruit and whipped cream creating more of an opaque jello salad. Our table had a fruit salad dressed in something I wasn't sure about. It was the sort of salad where many, many cans of fruit cocktail were cracked open and tossed along with mini marshmallows into the right-sized goldenrod Tupperware "fix 'n mix" bowl.

When the "Amen" concluded Grace before the meal, the hot-dish made its arrival to each of the tables--scalloped potatoes and cubed ham. The cheese sauce was added on top of the piping hot sliced potatoes which caused some slight scalding. Oh well...it didn't matter...it tasted like carb heaven going down.

After a while, someone from another table came holding a salad and inquired about swapping bowls, which we gladly agreed to the trade. In return for our fruit cocktail salad, we got a cherry jello salad with raspberries set in and whipped cream frosted on top. It was a refreshing finish to sooth the tongue burnt from the hot potatoes.

Back to that glass platter of cupcakes...there were probably four or five different varieties on our platter alone--a yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting, a white one with pink frosting and m&m's on top, a white one with marshmallow cream frosting and sprinkles on top, and my absolute favorite--a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. That was one of my grandma's specialties. I took advantage of that sentimental moment and informed my mom that I would like a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for my birthday in October. It was very difficult to have just one. We made sure Nick, my 13-year old nephew, ate three cupcakes and my brother Eric ate two cupcakes so the platter was empty as we left the table to visit with other family.

Kyle's remark about the luncheon? "I see they don't really take diabetics into consideration when planning their menu." Oh well, that's what the insulin is for, right? :)

When saying our good-byes, we were told by Hannah's son-in-law that we should be sure to stop by Hannah's farm to see her beautiful lily gardens, which we glady obliged. I wish I had gotten a shot of those gardens; they were stuffed with gorgeous lilies at peak blooming, it was so wonderful to see those beautiful garden beds which gave her such great joy.

And because we were down in the area, we made the wide circle and drove down through Storden. We noticed the playground on the old school lot is now over-grown with weeds. We reminisced about the time I did a header down the tall slide with Jeanine on watch and another time when Jolene tied my shoelaces in double-knots on the merry-go-round and told me to ask my really good-looking second cousin to rescue me who was on his way down to shoot hoops. I am not sure why all the memories were related to me, but ahhh, the good times...

We drove by my grandma's house appropriately situated on Pleasant Avenue. It looks great and someone seems to be living there, which is a positive thing since many of these little farm communities are slowly fading to nothing.

Something very cool is changing the landscape down in the farmland; huge wind turbines are dotting the horizon, their powerful arms perfectly rotating with the swift prairie breeze. This is great potential for the future sustainability of the community and a positive step in maximizing alternate energy solutions.

Even though it was a time of sadness, it was also a time of thankfulness for the simple things in life--family, generosity of community, God's beauty in nature and fantastic church basement luncheons.