Over Memorial Weekend, Terrill, Raelynn and I made the 13 hour drive to Tuscaloosa, Alabama where his family was having the memorial service for his grandfather. On the way there we stopped in Tupelo, Mississippi to see the birthplace of Elvis Presley. I will post another blog with photos from that trip.
We got to Tuscaloosa on Saturday around noon and spent the day at one of Terrill’s uncle’s houses visiting with family. On Sunday morning, we got together with my sister Ashlee and her daughter and went and bought the girls Our Generation dolls (like knock off American girl dolls) and then had lunch and visited for awhile. Ashlee recently moved to the Tuscaloosa area with her daughter so they could experience some change.
Sunday late afternoon was the memorial, and my husband had planned since the death of his grandfather to do the flag fold with the Honor Guard, so he arranged for them to come to the service. It was very beautiful and emotional to watch my husband do the flag fold, especially since it was for his own grandfather.
It was a really good memorial service and was filled with both laughter and tears as the family shared stories. This is a long story, but through an Ancestry DNA kit, just a few weeks ago, my mother in law and her siblings found out they had an unknown brother. They had all spent time over the past weeks getting to know him and they invited him to spend the weekend with them and come to the service. At the service, he shared how he had found his father through doing an Ancestry DNA kit and learned that he also had several siblings. He reached out to them and the rest is history! It has been amazing to be to witness such a gift unfold for my mother in-law and her siblings, and to see someone find out after 60+ years of life where they come from, and to be so warmly embraced by his new family.
Here are some of the photos from the memorial. I did not take many since I didn’t want to interrupt with a camera shutter and I also wanted to focus on the events and stories shared at the service, but I am glad I took these for my husband and his family.
