What an eventful week--it started with the death of my oldest cousin's daughter--and with B. leaving for a turkey hunting trip to Texas. B. left last Sunday morning, bright and early, with great hopes and dreams of turkey shooting heaven. I very much did not want him to go--I was still recovering "mentally" from my pretty much self imposed "health scare", and we had the phone call from my sister saying that Denise had died in a car accident. He went ahead with the trip because he knew I would be fine, and because the trip had been planned for months and months in advance. Anyway, I decided that the kids and I would travel to Missouri for the funeral on Wednesday. We left Tuesday morning, not realizing the weather situation in Missouri--wowzers--what a lot of rain. The area where I grew up is pretty much completely flooded--take a look at these pictures of my home town:

The local newspaper says this is the worst flood--8 inches in 10 hours-- in my home town since 1982--which I remember well. Some say it's actually worse.

Anyway, the funeral wasn't in this town, but farther up the road in Pacific--that's the town that FOX has been reporting from a lot. They were actually evacuating the town while the funeral was going on. Denise's funeral was actually delayed a little while because her fiance' was trying to evacuate from his house. Here's a few scenes from that area:

Thankfully, we were able to leave the area before the entire town was flooded--we saw a lot of rain, and a lot of water on the sides of the road but were never in any danger.

The funeral was very sad--all funerals are, but they are especially when the deceased is young. Denise was twenty, engaged, and full of life. There were a ton of kids there--she ran with a group of about 50 kids--there were many, many more than that at her funeral. She was greatly loved and will be greatly missed. So--in honor of her mother (and my cousin), Beth,--and in memory of Denise-here's the fun song that was played at the end of her funeral. I'll always think of her now when I hear it.

Denise Ann Brunk

June 17, 1987-March 15, 2008

I was so glad to have my cousin, Angela, come back to Mississippi with me on Wednesday for a visit. She just left a little while ago with her hubby--who was with my hubby on the hunting trip--to go back home. We had a nice time--didn't do a whole lot--we shopped, ate, talked, and watched several movies, including August Rush, Enchanted, and Horton Hears a Who--they were all pretty good--I hated the ending of August Rush--it could have been so much better, in my opinion. We also talked a little about our 40th birthday trip--we focused on Maui...

The company is gone now, B. is home taking a nap (they didn't shoot a single turkey), the kids will be back in school on Tuesday, and it seems things are going to get back to normal--whatever that is.

Labels: Family