I had to go to a funeral today ;-( Our neighbour's daughter died
after a 9 month battle with cancer. She had been our paper girl and
baby sitter. When our niece came to visit we hooked them up and they
became good friends and had kept in touch all these years.

The funeral service was for family and close friends only but was
followed by a memorial service. The family is Dutch and the service was
at a Christian Reformed church. Let me tell you.... I got holy rollered
today. I had expected the memorial service to last 20-30 minutes, not
an hour and a half. I had not expected preaching from her friends in
their testimonials. Then there was "the blessing" , holy cow... a fire
and brimstone sermon.

Finally, it was over. It was too late to attend the other function that
I had had to cancel when this funeral suddenly came up. The food was
simple. There were sandwiches made from fresh rolls, white or whole
wheat, and there was cheese or ham. I am not sure what kind of cheese it
was, but it was delicious. The ham was incredible. Everything was
simple but delicious. They also had platters of cookies and squares.

I don't spend enough time hanging out with Dutch people. At 6 feet, I am
not used to being below average height in a crowd.