Mom's memorial

Today was my mom's memorial.  Unfortunately on our way, while stopping to meet up with my cousin, our rental car's rear window was smashed and our backpack stolen from the backseat.  The shocking part was that we were gone for only 45 minutes in broad daylight (from roughly 11:30am to 12:15pm) and about 100 feet from a busy restaurant with folks waiting and dining outside.  99% of me was relieved that our coats and shoes (that weren't in the backpack) were left behind, but 1% of me was slightly insulted that they weren't taken.  Like the thieves were like, EYEROLL on my cool coat. 

Of course cleaning up glass slowed us down and made us late but eventually we were heading to Mill Valley from the city:

 

Unfortunately the break-in gave us a late start, but it was still a lovely ceremony.  My sister and I buried our mom's ashes, said a few words about how much our mom would be so happy to be around her family again, and then everyone came up, gave us a hug, and laid down a flower.  It was simple and nice to have a moment together like this.  Especially a life full of challenges, ups, and downs, it was nice that our mom was at peace.

Afterwards, one of our cousins hosted a get-together at her house and we all collected together for a picture:

And of course one of all our cute kids:

A sweet coincidence--our mom's alma mater, Michigan State trounced in-state rival, Michigan:

Though it was kind of a bummer that my Michigan State t-shirt was in the backpack that was stolen.

Anyhoo, it was a great day being with everyone, but bittersweet that our mom missed out on spending time with everyone.  But I guess that's the nature of loss, right?