A Big Sigh of Relief

Phew. The Celebration of Life went off without a hitch. 

Despite all the stress, it was one party dad would have loved to attend.  The large section of the Wraspir Hedge was present and accounted for.  Dad loved his family, and having them all there to celebrate his life was truly a way to remember him.

The Gene Wraspir family
I wasn't sure all of them were going to make it over and yet they all did.  Only little Austin is missing from this Wraspir Clan.

Uncle Gene was Dad's brother and passed away several years ago.  Both he and dad would have loved to see his family altogether under one roof.

Left to Right: Denice, Danika, Scott, Jim, Penny, Alex, Gloria, Sherrie, Larry, Claudia, Alyssa, Todd and Vicki.

Claudia, Denice, Penny, Sherrie and Scott are the nieces and nephews of dad. Todd would be a great nephew to dad. Alyssa (Todd's Daughter) would be a GREAT GREAT niece to dad. Vicki (married to Todd), Jim (married to Penny) and Larry (married to Claudia) would be nephews by marriage to dad.  And last, Danika and Alex would be Great niece and nephew to dad.

Phew. I'm tired.

And then there is Aunt Joyce's family.  Joyce is Dad's sister.

Left to right\back row: Baby Haven, Michelle, Jeremy, Cashton, Jon, Rebecca (I think), Baby and significant of Amanda, and then Amanda. Front row: Dawnelle, Joyce, Michelle and Peyton

Now the Joyce Wraspir's (Haase) clan is a bit more complicated for me. I'm not familiar with all the names, but here we go.  Dawnelle and Michelle (the twins) are dad's nieces.  Jeremy is dad's GREAT nephew. Jon is nephew by marriage. Rebecca and Amanda are GREAT nieces to dad. Peyton, Cashton and Haven are Great GREAT nieces and nephews.  Michelle is niece by marriage.

Big deep breath, we're almost done.

Now the cousins. This is gonna be fun. Actually this one is easy. We're all first cousins with our aunts.


Left to Right: Marilyn, Claudia, Penny, Sherrie, Scott, Gloria, Ric, Michelle, Michael, Joyce, Dawnelle, Denice, Jerry, Mom and me.

Mom's side of the family snuck into the mix too.  This is Aunt Jean with mom.  We didn't recognize her when she got out of the car. Oops!

This is the other half of my family.  In this photo with me and mom is my sister Melanie and her family.  Husband Ron, daughter Lori and son Victor. 

 

Then there are the big brothers.  Jerry, Ric and Michael.  Since I call Ric BigBro, I guess that makes Jerry Bigger Bro and Michael BiggestBro. I'm sure he would not appreciate that. I was thrilled they both made it.  Michael belongs to St. Louis SIL and was able to fly out from St. Louis. Jerry is just in Eastern Washington, but we weren't sure he'd make it over. Surprise! He did.

And this would be all the kids (minus William Eugene the adopted, sorta, daughter).

 

And this is Gary and Jeannette Wraspir.  Gary was dad's little side kick growing up. In fact, the joke is Gary didn't get to grow much because he was always in Dad's big shadow.  Mom and Jeannette are best friends, and Gary was one of dad's best friends.  Jeannette read a letter written by a cousin of ours as a tribute to dad.  Tear jerker...ugh. 

I think I got all the family photos in.

The celebration was super fun, the reason we were all together was sad, but seeing everyone talk and laugh over stories about dad was a nice bit of closure.  We had a moment when we let people get up and tell stories of dad. I tried to. I got like three words out and then lost it.  Mortified! But I figured if ever you're going to lose it in front of a group of people, might as well be at your Dad's Celebration of Life...I'm sure they understood.

Now we pick up and try to live our lives without dad.  So much of my every day life he lives in and I'm okay with that.  In fact, proud that he does. I'm sure he's out there somewhere in the great tomato garden in the sky, kicking back, watching us. 

If you don't mind, I'm going to leave you with a few more of my favorite photos of dad.