Funerals and Special Musical Numbers

Today was the funeral of Aunt Phyllis, she is my dads sister. It was good to get together with family and reestablish old relationships.
It was a sweet funeral, and dad kept saying it was better than he expected.  It was short and sweet which was nice. Phyllis's three grandchildren each shared memories of their grandmother. However there were some great snickering and laughing moments....not at the grandchildren, they all did a great job.  Phyllis would have loved it.... but laughter at generational miscommunication.
So here is what went down:The program listed two special musical numbers, "I'll Follow the Sun" by the Beatles and "You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins. No other names were listed with the musical numbers so I guessed that they were going to play recordings of the songs...no biggie, some families don't know people to help out with the music or don't have those talents to share at theses times....... but the recorded music was a biggie.
After they played the opening song,  the Beatles singing "I'll follow the Sun" a prayer was given by Dad. He blessed the speakers and the musical number.....snicker.....and elbow pokes...... I thought I'm sure Phil Collins will enjoy the blessings. Later Dad said he didn't know who Phil Collins was.....
The remainder of the program was then announced by the nephew-in-law Stake President, he said  we will then have a musical number by Brother Phil Collins, singing "I'll Be In Your Heart"......more snickers and elbow pokes.
The first two grandchildren had finished and according to the program it was now time for the musical number.......and nothing.......so, the man conducting got up and asked  "is Brother Collins here?" .......oh, no, more than snickers, Melinda and I began to laugh, silently and shaky. Then someone motioned to the man in charge and he said "Oh Brother Collins is in the hall and will be in, in a moment." We laughed harder...but silently.  We were shaking, Melinda said it looked like we were crying so it was okay, I laughed harder. Mom and Dad couldn't even look at us.  We knew the truth, Phil Collins is a super star, living across the pond and he wouldn't be joining us....then the music started. Thank heavens when the music finally started it was loud to mask our chuckles. The bench was shaking, Dad told us that he was thinking "what is my nephew(Phyllis's son) in front of me thinking of my girls?" Melinda didn't know if she was offending cousin Eileen next to her so she kept turning her head towards me, which made mom chuckle....(Eileen was chuckling as well). As the song was coming to a close I reminded Melinda that this was the song the Jordan and I danced the Mother Son dance at his wedding .....then I said "and it's a damn long song to dance to."  More laughter.....
Melinda and I are not a good pair when we begin laughing in reverent situations......we have a time in the Temple that we came undone with laughter as well.....but that is for another time.
Anyway we regained our composure, and finished the short sweet funeral.....without embarrassment.

Funeral Reflections-
The saddest part about loosing a sibling is loosing someone who was a witness to your early life. Your spouse and kids are great, but the sibs know things that they will never know about you.  My Grandma Butters told me that several years ago when she became the last one left of her family. Today when I told dad what grandma had told me he shook his head yes, and got teary all over again.....and then there were 2 out of 13.

MCC