Saying goodbye

By Herself and Her Friends

If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone,
Nor when I'm gone speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must, Parting is hell,
But Life goes on, So sing as well.

Joyce Grenfell



Donald and Harley and I drove to Atlanta for the weekend.

We took some back roads as much as possible so as not to have to deal with the idiocy of expressways.

There are always fun things to discover traveling country roads, and this trip we ran across this wonderful old home that looks like it should be sitting on Nob Hill in San Francisco.

It wasn't sitting in San Francisco, but was instead in Shelby, NC




Donald and I lived in Atlanta for many years, but we've been gone almost 20 years.


The skyline looks a little different than it did while we were there.  

The traffic, however, looks about the same.

We stayed with dear and much loved friends Vickie & Brent Smith.

and we had a fabulous time.

We were welcomed with smiles, heaps of love, open arms and a wonderful home cooked meal, cooked by one of the best cooks I know.

And Harley was warmly welcomed also.

Saturday morning when we woke up, truthfully, I only wanted to pull the covers up over my head and stay right where I was.

But, I couldn't do that.

We were here to celebrate the life of Mary Hazel Messick Wilkinson.

As much as I wanted to do this celebration, my heart was breaking.

Quite plain and simply, I could not have done it without Vickie.  I just couldn't have.

So we started the day early by first picking up flowers, then picking up balloons.  All things Vickie had taken care of ordering and making sure they would be ready for pickup at the appropriate times.  

She was also the brains behind the mimosas for a toast to my mom at the end of the ceremony.  

The ceremony which was perfect thanks to our friend John Messer.

Truly, it could not have been any more perfect.

John set a comfortable, loving tone for us to send my mom off to join my dad.

He told some sweet stories, some very funny stories and shared some memories from over the years.  After which others had stories to share as well.

If Mother had been able to tell us what she might have wanted, I feel pretty sure it was exactly what we did.

We done her proud, as we're fond of saying here in the south.

We sent my mom off amid a few tears, but a lot of smiles, amongst friends, family, flowers, balloons and champagne on a beautiful Georgia day.

And it was a magical day.



We celebrated the life of Hazel Wilkinson in a way that I know had her, and my dad, smiling.

Following the service and after the toast, there were balloons.

More magic.















And then there was lunch.  A long, lovely, relaxed lunch.

Where we discovered that folks who thought they didn't know one another had all sorts of friends of friends and intersecting lives.

And then it was back to the Smith abode.  

More champagne.

and plans to go out to dinner were changed to 

pizza at home - Yay!!!!

And then Sunday was here before we knew it.

Time to say goodbye.

As Kasey Fennell would have said, "it was a good weekend."