Trip to Bremerton

This past week, my brother Scott and I drove to Bremerton, Washington for my grandmother’s funeral. She had been battling Alzheimer’s Disease for several years, and it was a bittersweet experience as she finally passed from this life into the next. As has been expressed by several people, we already lost Grandma once as the disease took her memory and ability to communicate. But through it all, Grandpa was a rock of strength as he lovingly cared for her every need. He is a terrific example, and I hope to emulate him.

Here are a few notes I took from the service:

Uncle Douglas spoke and shared the following ideas and memories:

• He talked about coming home after school and at lunch and always finding Grandma there. He said that he and his siblings all knew this was where she was supposed to be, and it was very comforting for them to know she was always there.
  
• He remembered lying in bed listening to Grandma read to them from the bottom of the stairs. She usually read to them from The Children’s Friend. That was fun for me to hear because I enjoy reading to my kids each night. Although we don’t read The Friend, we do always start with scriptures, then read something “for fun.”
  
• Douglas told a great story. One day in high school (as a senior?) he and a friend decided it would be a great adventure to skip school for a day. They played hooky and went swimming and enjoyed other activities for the day. Then they realized they would need a note from a parent to get back into school the next day. The last person Douglas wanted to talk to was Grandpa, so he explained his situation to Grandma and asked for her help. She was never one to lie, but she obviously wanted Douglas to be able to go to school the next day, so she wrote the following note: “Please excuse Douglas from school yesterday. He was not there.” That got a good laugh from everyone.
  

The Stake President (the extremely young Stake President, I might add) was the closing speaker. He spoke on the three topics Grandma wanted addressed: eternal life, repentance, and the Atonement. He said:

• Our spirits can receive revelation from the Holy Ghost, and angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. He suggested that our loved ones who die may be involved in our lives periodically, and that the communication they have with us will be through the influence of the Holy Ghost. That was an idea I had never considered, and I thought it was pretty neat.
  
• The great plan of happiness of our Heavenly Father requires that we die. If death did not occur, the plan would not be inconvenienced or changed; it would be destroyed.
  
• We can apply repentance to the past, present and future. We can choose today to repent, and that choice now will affect our future choices for good.
  
• God’s mercy moves us from bad to good; His grace moves us from good to better and best. I had never thought of that idea before, and I loved it. What a great explanation of what both mercy and grace do.
  
• The Atonement provides us with a crutch to help us through the hard times. But it also provides us with wings that let us fly. If we use it only as a “crutch,” we miss out on the most important aspect. This idea really touched me too. I have always understood that the Atonement helps us through our hard times, but this helped expand on my understanding of the Atonement's ability to do more than just cleanse us - it takes us places we could never go alone, places I long to go.
  
• All that is unfair in this life will be made right through the power of the Atonement.