Cindy and Greg

This morning, I had the opportunity to share my memories of Grandma at her memorial service…

To paraphrase Tennyson, “God’s finger touched her, and she slept.” We have all been touched by the life of Molly Shanley. We come here today bonded together forever by her love and compassion. She was a devoted wife, friend, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

We all have special memories of grandma and what she has done for us. I especially remember those Sunday afternoons spent shopping at the mall, followed by Sunday dinners with seemingly bottomless bowls of linguine and meatballs. Or those special, though hot Christmas afternoons in Grandma’s apartment as we opened gifts and shared the holidays together. And recently how each time you came to her apartment, you needed to watch all of the pictures on her picture frame or how the definition of the perfect day would be to go walk around the mall and stop at ShopRite.

As we each mourn in our own way, we should remember the lessons Molly has taught us over the years. I have always been struck by her unconditional love and support for each of us. I remember clearly a conversation that she had with my mother; It happened many years ago during a difficult time for one of the cousins…grandma said with her signature shoulder shrug, “what are you going to do, he needs to be happy.” No matter what we did, at her very soul she wanted for each of us was to be happy. She has and will always be a pillar of our family, supporting us, and guiding us. For this we must celebrate her life, remembering these lessons and the time we were lucky enough to spend with her.

While these days and nights are difficult for us, we should take comfort in knowing that Molly is once again together with Alexander, her loving husband. We should take comfort in the 96 years that she has given the world and the difference she has made in it and in all of us; for without her, we would not be.

My father was fond of saying, that our children are the messengers to a time we shall not see. Today we are all grandma’s children, we have heard her message, and are better people for it.

So while we will shed many tears in the coming days, share many hugs in the coming weeks, and remember with longing our time with grandma in the years to come, the stars in the heavens will twinkle that much brighter with her watching over us.

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It is never easy when one has to deal with a life changing event be it a wedding or a funeral, but when both events happen right on top of each other, it makes for an incredibly difficult time. Friday morning, the day of Katie’s wedding (the youngest grand-daughter), our grandma passed away. As Katie began the events of the day, the hair, the nails, and she enjoyed her last few hours as a single woman, we received the news from mom that grandma had passed away. The difficult decision was made to keep the news from the bride to be (as well a the mother of the bride) as it was her day and we wanted her to have special memories of her wedding day. Not an easy decision to make, but we hoped that they would understand.

Grandma lead a long and heathly life. At 96 years old, grandma while having given up her license in the days of the Reagan presidency, lived alone until her final days. Three weeks ago grandma took a fall in her apartment and from then on it has be a difficult time trying to control her heart rate, blood pressure, and sodium levels.

The viewing is today and the funeral mass is on Monday, afterwhich grandma will be laid to rest with her husband, Alexander and next to my father.

While the world sheds a tear for the loss of a wonderful, kind, and caring woman, we are comforted by the thought she is joined again with her life partner. And we celebrate the marriage of Katie as she, on this both difficult and wonderful day, has been joined together with her life partner to carry on the messages we have learned from grandma.

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Well, it is official…Perceiva has graduated from the James City County Technology Incubator. It is officially a self-sustaining company and is taking in more then it is burning each month.

Busy couple of weeks around these parts. Cindy has her first listing. Check our her site for more information. We posted a bunch of new pictures in the photo gallery, so be sure to check them out. We are headed to the Hampton’s next week for Katie’s wedding, so we are sure to have more pictures when we get back.

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Today Cindy and I planned to do work around the house. On my list was to paint the upstairs hallway “Almond Oil” from the Eddie Bauer collection at Lowes. Cindy was going to work on cleaning the house (bless her heart). Around 10a, we hear the noise of a lawn mower…we look at the calendar and then look outside. Our neighbors with the perfect lawn have started already. They mulched (new word for the day) yesterday and then mowed the lawn this morning. Good lord, it is only March 11.

We have been preparing to have the downstairs air conditioning unit replaced, so tomorrow Andrew from A.D. Wiggins Mechanical will be coming over to replace our builder quality 2.5 ton (that sounds like a lot) dual fuel heat pump system with a brand new shiny Armstrong 2.5 ton dual fuel heat pump. Doesn’t sound very interesting does it? Nope, not interesting, but will be helpful come summer time here in Williamsburg.

Anyway, happy Sunday!

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It has been quiet around here for a little bit, for that I apologize. It has been crazy around 3724 General Gookin. I will post more of an update later, but I wanted to share this link…

 Cindy is the team capitan for the Coldwell Banker Professional Realtors Relay for Life Team. We are looking for support to reach her personal goal of raising $500…if you can help, please see her donation page.

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Take a moment to remember all the people that are important to you today. Why not pick up the phone and tell them how important they are to you.

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So taking advantage of the summer like weather in January, Cindy and I brought Tucker over to the Colonial area last night (after dinner time). He was a bit nervous to start, but did relatively well on the leash. We sat for a bit near one of the restaurants in Merchant Square in hopes that Tucker would get use to people walking by…unfortunately, Tucker managed to put himself underneath the bench. We made our way down Duke of Gloucester Street and around the palace. We sat a bit more right by Bruton Parish Church and Tucker did surprisingly well. We continued down to the bookstore and needless to say, he did wonderfully.

We’re going to continue these little excursions throughout the winter while Williamsburg is in its off season to get him ready for the tourists come spring.

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