Last week my sister and I attended the funeral of our cousin Kelly. Sad, yes. Sadder still that her mom is the one that has cut the rest of the other 8 siblings out of their lives, so it took a funeral in order to see them. My mom had a childhood that, I imagine, was BEYOND Dickensian. She was the youngest of 9 kids (Helooooo Irish-Catholics!) and they had less than nothing. But Kelly's mom, to hear the rest of the siblings tell it, was the Most Favored Nation.
That's all fine, but I have cousins that I would really like to reconnect with. Like my incredibly decent cousin Brian (who I thought was the Bees Knees at age 7) and his wife and kids. And my Uncle Dave, Kelly's Dad is - and I mean this quite literally - the nicest man in the world. Seriously, I personally challenge you to find and introduce me to someone nicer and sweeter than Dave Steffel. I personally guarantee that it will not, ney, CANNOT happen.
At any rate, these aforementioned decent and nice people were mourning the loss of their sister, aunt and daughter and along comes The Gold Digger (music, please). My uncle's far inferior second wife, WITH A CAMERA. Let me say this again. She had a camera AT THE FUNERAL. Snapping pictures as if it was actually a wedding. I don;t even know where to begin on this one.
Granted, we have a few hermits in the family that only turn out for funerals (not even weddings). And, true to form, Uncle Tom was there. And, by God, The Gold Digger got a few good snapshots for her scrapbook. Complete, I am sure, with the casket in the background. What part of inappropriate is she having trouble with here? Also, this could have been done discreetly with cell phone cameras if she REALLY wanted a picture of Tom that badly (hey, he has aged well. It's probably because he avoids the rest of us like the plague).
On the up side, if there is one, I got to hang with my most favorite cousin, Nikki. This is the person who, if we lived closer, I feel certain I would be stalking (out of love). Also, a whole new level of hell would be raised. She is all kinds of cool and I hate that I only see her at weddings, funerals and FlemFest (yes, you read the correctly).
So, that is my mom's family in a nutshell - appropriately enough. We've covered Osi's family ad infinitum and now mom's family. Dad's family need a whole other blog.
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2 comments:
Hey, sorry to hear about your loss. But oddly enough, the camera-at-a-funeral thing is NOT uncommon. In fact, my sister's funeral was videotaped, I guess so that those who missed out could relive it later. Odd, but who knows? Maybe someone's heart is in the right place. Unless, of course, she was running around yelling "Smile!" at everybody. Then, that would hav just been a little touch surreal.
Interesting you should mention the videotape. I could have sworn I saw a video camera and a guy manning it in the choir loft when we turned around to leave. I just can't fathom why anyone would do that. Of course, I've never lost a child, either, so I guess people have their reasons.
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