Great Aunt Elva's Funeral

This morning, I was able to attend my Great Aunt Elva Peterson Hackwell's funeral in Ogden. It was a blessing to me being able to be there. When I arrived, I was relieved to see my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Jon walking in the building. I was excited to see my Aunt LaRae and Uncle Lyle in the foyer when I walked in (they received permission to attend the funeral from their zone leader-- they are serving a full time mission in the Family History Library in Salt Lake). I went in and talked to my dad's cousin, Kay, Elva's daughter.

I have great memories of Aunt Elva (my Grandpa Peterson's sister) at our Peterson Family Christmas parties. She was always dressed just beautifully with every hair in place. She was a former kindergarten teacher also and so we had that connection.

It was so good to be with family! When I went back into the foyer, my sweet grandma had arrived along with my Aunt Tamara. A few minutes later, my Aunt Jami came in, she had drive down from Idaho. I attended the family prayer along with my grandma, aunts and uncles. During the funeral, I was sitting on a row together with my Grandma Peterson, my aunts and uncles. During the funeral, I was pretty emotional because I felt the strength of my Peterson family-- they were filling that void of my parents. I felt of their strength and love and I could not control my emotions very well.

Aunt Elva's funeral was beautiful. Her grandson, Erik, sang one of my favorite hymns (especially the words and meaning in Spanish) "Abide with Me" (in Spanish, the title is "Acompaname" or accompany me-- I just love thinking of that closeness). Roger, Elva's grandson-in-law gave a beautiful talk and her son, Richard's talk was wonderful (I think he ought to add his talk to his mother's memory page on familysearch.org). Richard shared tons of memories of his mother and father and how they met and stories of my Great Grandfather Peterson.

After we walked out of the funeral, I gave my Aunt Jami a hug and just started bawling again. I was finally composed enough to tell my aunts and uncles how they were strengthening me in my parents absence. They then understood why I was having such a hard time during the funeral. I told my aunt, " I just need an aunt hug" and I have been known to ask a wonderful friend, Linda Wayment, in my ward for a "mom hug" on at lease one occasion in the past few months. I am very blessed to have wonderful family in my life-- family who loves me no matter what-- family who would do anything for me -- family who has know me my entire life. What a great blessing eternal extended families are! I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for reminding me of the great love of family!