It's been an unusual and busy week. D2 arrived Wednesday for Grammy Carol's visitation and stayed the night. D1 arrived Thursday morning and we attended the funeral together. Both my daughters left after the funeral, but D2 returned Saturday with her kids. Friday was spent trying to make groceries online, but was foiled by a very slow internet most of the day combined with issues with the grocer's web sight. By the time I was able to get the order placed, no time slots were available for delivery of pick up Friday. Scheduled pickup for very early Saturday morning before D2 was scheduled to return. Had a nice visit with D2 and the grand kids Saturday and Sunday. D2 and grand kids left Sunday afternoon. Decided a nap was in order to recover from everything and dozed far longer then I had intended. Still cleaning up after the visits.
Grammy Carol died nearly two weeks before the funeral and as mentioned then was a good woman. Took that long to get some of the family together. Grammy Carol was actually my step mother in law, but was known as Grammy Carol to my kids. She married my widowed father in law not long after my wife and I married. Grammy Carol's family is a well blended and convoluted family that is difficult to keep track of and sorted out. GC was married 3 times, and widowed 2 or maybe 3 times. I say 2 or 3 times, because I was always told 3 times. There was no mention in the obituary of her first husband, which was the father of her children. I found out during the funeral gatherings that apparently GC and husband No. 1 were divorced, and he has since died, maybe. I'm led to believe that he was a very bad man. No one in GC's family, including his children talks about him. All I know for certain is that he had the same first name as her other two husbands. I believe they were married, but am not even certain of that. Being a step in law, I was somewhat on the outside, not a lot of GC's family history was shared with me. After my father-in-law passed over 20 years ago, I was invited to and attended some of GC's family gatherings, frequently Thanksgiving, so only got an occasional snap shop.
It gets even more confusing when you look at the rest of the family tree. All of GC's children had multiple marriages and partners over the years. Some had children with multiple spouses or partners. A couple of brothers married sisters, then divorced. Apparently GC may have had an adopted daughter that was banished from the family, but her daughter was acknowledged at the funeral. Folks would show up at a family gathering with a partner or spouse and kids, then two years later at another gathering with a different partner or spouse and kids. No one ever made introductions to the new or different people, so you had to try and listen carefully to try to figure out who was who, or with who. One of GC son's was with a gal a long time and they had kids together before they split angrily. She wasn't around for a decade or two, then shows up partnered with GC's younger brother for a couple of years, causing some tension, then gone again. A bit over a year ago she called GC asking about me, thought she had seen me someplace, and how could she get in touch with me. Wisely, GC said she didn't have my number. She was at the funeral, not with GC's ailing brother, but hanging out with him much of the time. When I visited with CG's brother she was a bit flirty. I didn't take the bait. I want no part of that tangled web.
Any wood mallet will do.
