Musings

Did you know that in Queensland, the sun rises at 4.15am during the summer?
I’m sitting here at about 7.30am and the sun is as high in the sky as it normally is at about 10am in Perth.
I’m here because my grandma passed away on the weekend.
My parents offered to pay to fly me over for the funeral, and since then, I’ve found out I will be delivering a eulogy and will also be a pallbearer.

I’ve never really had to deal with death in my family before. I’ve been pretty lucky in that respect. As you guy know, grandma’s death was expected. That doesn’t really make it any easier. I was okay when I was in Perth, but once I got on the plane and started to get closer to Brisbane, it started to hit home. This would be the first trip I had made to Brisbane without seeing grandma.

I guess the thing that has hit home for me is that death is so… permanent.
Meeting up with family I haven’t seen in ages has been great, but reminiscing about grandma just makes me sad. No longer will I be enveloped in those big, warm grandmotherly hugs. No longer will I be able to walk up the back steps of the house on Long Street, through the sleepout and into the kitchen that always smelled fantastic.
No longer will I be able to have thick slabs of bread with lemon butter, surrounded by Tupperware containers that are older than I am.
But she’s in a better place now.
And I’m here to celebrate her life, for want of a better cliché, with my family. That’s the important part.