Three times a lady

It’s been a week now since we lost Nana. The boys and I came back to Columbus on Thursday and left Rob to have some time with his sister and dad until Saturday. Now we are all getting back to the inevitable work of going on with life. The boys – with their inability to conceive of death as something permanent and tragic (perhaps because they are in ways wiser than us?) make that fairly easy. Still I've got Rob's dad on my mind much of the time and I walk around singing some of Nana’s songs in my head and aloud. There’s the hymn “How Great Thou Art” from what wound up being a beautiful funeral service and a wonderful tribute to Ann -- and the Lionel Richie Song “Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady,” which piped through the church at the end of the service as Rob’s dad’s final tribute to the woman he’s loved since he was 15 years old and the woman who shared his love for some good old Lionel tunes.

It’s meant so much to us to read all of your thoughts and memories of Ann in the previous post and to think of Will and Owen being able to read them one day as well. They’ve lost a wonderful grandmother who they will hardly remember except through our words and stories and photos -- so I want to do our best to make those vivid and lasting. If you’re coming here late, and you still have something to say, keep those thoughts and memories coming. We’ll keep checking back.