Diana!!!

[AngieDoogles]

Hey girl! I know that you are having a tough day so I just wanted to start a thread so that everyone here can give you some encouragement. I have been thinking about you all day and hoping that you are alright. *hugs*

[Marilyn]

Hugs to Diana, too. It must have been a difficult day. What a tough thing to come home to. You must be experiencing a whole array of emotions today.

[Mandy]

Big hugs to you from us Diana, thinking about you, and your family!

[Gina]

lots of hugs to you Diana at this time...

[judy]

Diana,

You and your family are in my heart and prayers. This is a difficult time for all of you. We are all here for your support.

[DianaB]

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers yesterday. It was one of the hardest days that I've ever had. My father-in-law could be so aggravating some times but even then he'd make a joke out of it and you couldn't stay aggravated at him for very long. I truely admired him and the kind of father that he was. I always wished that my Dad was more like him.

The funeral was a real tribute to him. The funeral home called him an "icon" in our community because they had had 200 calls from people about the service. It was estimated that there were around 400 people there, which is a lot in a community of 2,600. However, we had some people fly in and drive some distances to be at the funeral.

You always saw Frank in overalls so the kids and some of the grandchildren wore overalls to the funeral with one leg cuff turned up, just like Frank wore his. My son-in-law actually wore a pair of Frank's overalls. He was having a really hard time. He never had a father and his grandfather has been gone for years and Frank was so good to Jason. The whole family is having a hard time. I saw my nephews in their 20's sitting and just sobbing because he was such a great grandfather to them. My son, Feyn, and his family were on a vacation in Texas (this was the third time they'd tried to go.) and my son was very upset that he wasn't here. He tried to get a plane ticket to fly home but it was going to cost too much. My son spent a lot of time with Frank and just lived a quarter mile apart.

The grave side services were pretty normal until the end. Frank always said that he just wanted to be buried in a pine box, so the casket was a light colored pine wood casket. It was not too fancy but had the nice handles on it. After the service they passed out colored permanent markers and anyone who wanted to could leave a message on the casket. The casket had messages all over it of love, pictures from the little kids, sayings of "I'll see you later!", and whatever thoughts that we wanted to leave with Frank. I had left a message and signed it "Your favorite daughter-in-law" and when the other daughter-in-law saw it she went and got another marker and I saw her adding to her message. I looked over her shoulder and she was adding "Your favorite, favorite other daughter-in-law"!!! We had a huge laugh over it! It was a wonderful funeral and Frank would have certainly loved it, but it's been so very difficult to say good-bye. My recent ex-sister-in-law wrote a message asking for forgiveness. So very touching.

We are going to have Glen's family around for a few days because some decisions are going to have to be made about Glen's Mom. She's not really in shape to be left at home alone. I don't know what they're going to decide on her so I know that prayers would still be appreciated. What makes it the hardest is that this family has several "leaders" and that makes arriving at the same decision harder.

Here's the obituary that the funeral home put on the internet with Frank's picture.

http://www.countrysidefh.com/obits.php?ID=0000000385