A lot happened between Kathleen's passing on Friday, November 14th, and the funeral services the weekend after Thanksgiving. And I'll get to all that good stuff, but for now, I'm going to skip ahead to our trip to Spokane.
We were so happy that all of our people could be there. Elinor, Hunter, Daniel and Peter drove in a separate car, and the rest of us piled into a 15-passenger van. Baby Charlie did great on the long drive both ways.
We met up with several of the families at a local Taco Time-- it was tradition.
Cousins were happy to be together again. Then it was off to the hotel for some shut-eye.
There was to be a viewing Saturday night, so we holed up in a church building during the day to watch the big BYU / UofU football game, play games, and visit.
I worked on putting together a project George had helped me with. He 3D printed all these red hearts for each member of the Fox family. 2 large hearts for Jim and Kathleen, 18 slightly smaller for their children and in-laws, 64 even smaller for the grandchildren, and 14 for great-grandchildren.
That was pretty gutsy of the Veltri clan to come to the BYU game decked out in the Utah gear! Boo!
Daniel and Daniel
HUGE shoutout to Amy for her organizational genius in figuring out how to manage and feed the whole family on multiple occasions over the weekend. She was brilliant!
It cannot be argued otherwise-- the Fox family is LOUD, obnoxious and
a little lot arrogant. Nor, however, can it be argued that there is not a tremendous amount of love and goodwill among the cousins and aunts and uncles. It is a blessing and an honor to associate with them.
Clark and Alexis at the family viewing.
Hunter, Elinor, and Daniel
Kathleen was adamant that she did not want a funeral. So we had an hour long viewing just for family and then another hour that was open to the public. Then the following morning we had a graveside service with just the family.
The three musketeers of the cousins-- Brigham, George, and Asher. You pretty much never see one without the other two in tow.
The plain, pine casket was perfect for the grandchildren to trace their handprint and write a final message to Grandma.
Russell (one of the older brothers) wrote the obituary and then read it aloud. He is a marvelous writer and he captured her life so beautifully.
Most, but not quite all of the cousins.
Her nine children and their spouses.
The nine siblings
Abe offered the Family Prayer
The next morning we gathered at Pine's Cemetery. Bethany accompanied the family in singing a couple of songs. Sarah, the oldest grandchild, spoke briefly about one of Grandma's favorite scriptures.
Here is a look at the programs Amy put together.
Abe and me with Stuart and Tiffany
The pallbearers consisted of one representative grandchild from each of the nine families.
It was so cold up in Spokane this Thanksgiving weekend. Thankfully, it was a bit warmer during the time of the needing to be outside.
Such a sad little Peter. Funerals are a lot of strong emotions for everyone, and I think they can be especially impactful on children. I believe this was snapped while we were singing "Families Can be Together Forever". At my own Grandpa Clark's funeral, the grandchildren sang that song and it made such an impression on me that for the next 5 years or so, I cried every time it was sung at church.
At the end of the official program, which was quite short and very sweet, everyone could toss in a flower and their red heart with their name on it.
It was very tender
When that was done we did something somewhat unconventional-- We all sang "So Long, Farewell" from
The Sound of Music. It was a play she directed many years back and we thought she would appreciate it. But even more so, because at her husband's funeral, in classic Kathleen fashion, she sang a couple of lines of it to Jim. So it seemed the thing to do. And indeed, it was the
perfect way to end the service.
Back at Fox Hill for lunch
It's sad that Landen didn't get to meet her, but I am so glad he got to experience the Fox family in this way.
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