Ray and I went to Island Park Idaho on the 2nd to his cousin Matt's wife Kerri's funeral. She passed away after loosing a battle to colon cancer. The morning of her funeral, we packed so that we could head right to Kimberly from Island Park, but as we were leaving the funeral, we got a call from Carolyn asking if we could get some pictures off our computer for the video they were making for mom's viewing. We decided that we would head home and spend the night, and then head out early the next morning. When we got to Idaho Ray's sisters invited me to go to the floral shop with them to help pick out flowers for his moms casket piece, and to drop off the few things we wanted to have them add to the arrangement. These few items were things mom had hanging behind her stove in the family room, and we thought it would be more personal having them added. The strand of pink roses you see in the arrangement, an old bridal, and an old piece of wood. It made the arrangement that much more beautiful I think. Below are some picks of mom's viewing, and a few others. 
Carolyn, DJ, Creed, Sam and Ray's cousin Dave Baker who traveled from Montana. 
Mike and Aunt Kathy (mom's twin)
This is the other side of the viewing room. They had two flat screen TVs playing the video that was made for mom of her life, and then the two pictures hanging below the TV are the other two we had enlarged that we found of their wedding. The two pictures sitting on the table were from mine and Ray's wedding. We gave them to mom for christmas the year after we got married. She had them hanging on her wall in her living room, and I believe it was the last nice picture she had with all 6 of her kids together. We received several nice plants, and arrangement from people. Ray and I were surprised to see a plant from his work. The Basket with two plants in it on the left side in this picture above is from his work. It meant a lot to Ray to have them send it, and it looks beautiful on my kitchen table. :)
Carolyn, DJ, Creed, Sam and Ray's cousin Dave Baker who traveled from Montana. Mike and Aunt Kathy (mom's twin)
Mom's floral arrangements
Ray used to trace his mom's veins when he was a little boy, and even got caught a few times as an adult rubbing his fingers along the veins and lines of her hands. I found him doing it again at her viewing and had to capture one final memory for him.
While Ray and I were on our way home from Ray's cousin Matt's wife's funeral in Island Park Idaho, Rays sisters called and asked me if I would make the arrangement that sits on the casket. I was both honored and terrified. I felt honored that they would ask me to do such an important floral piece for mom funeral, but at the same time I was terrified that I would not do justice to such an important arrangement. I quickly called my sisters and got some advice on how to start such a large arrangement. I have only made a few small ones that have sat on infant caskets. Well, when we got to Kimberly his sisters informed me that they decided to have the floral shop make it, but that they wanted me to make the two arrangement that sat on either side of her casket. I was a bit relieved that I would not be doing the big one after all. These are the two arrangements that I put together. I really hope that they like them. 
This was one of the settings they had at mom's viewing. When Ray and Carolyn were looking in mom's cedar chest in her room I found an old box with slides in it from when Ray was a young boy. The date on the box was from just a few weeks after his dad had passed away so I opened it to look at the slides. I found some pictures of Ray that his parents had had taken, and Ray had never seen any of them except the one that his mom had made into an 8x10. Ray was pretty excited to see these pictures. But, what was even more exciting was the negatives that were with them of his parents wedding. The kids had never seen any except the few small ones that were in a photo book as they were growing up. So off we headed to Costco to have them made into big pictures for her funeral. The big picture below is one of the pictures we found. :)
Ray and Aunt Kathy. (her and mom were identical twins)
Tena getting a hug from Aunt Betty. She is his dad's sister!
Ray used to trace his mom's veins when he was a little boy, and even got caught a few times as an adult rubbing his fingers along the veins and lines of her hands. I found him doing it again at her viewing and had to capture one final memory for him.
While Ray and I were on our way home from Ray's cousin Matt's wife's funeral in Island Park Idaho, Rays sisters called and asked me if I would make the arrangement that sits on the casket. I was both honored and terrified. I felt honored that they would ask me to do such an important floral piece for mom funeral, but at the same time I was terrified that I would not do justice to such an important arrangement. I quickly called my sisters and got some advice on how to start such a large arrangement. I have only made a few small ones that have sat on infant caskets. Well, when we got to Kimberly his sisters informed me that they decided to have the floral shop make it, but that they wanted me to make the two arrangement that sat on either side of her casket. I was a bit relieved that I would not be doing the big one after all. These are the two arrangements that I put together. I really hope that they like them. This was one of the settings they had at mom's viewing. When Ray and Carolyn were looking in mom's cedar chest in her room I found an old box with slides in it from when Ray was a young boy. The date on the box was from just a few weeks after his dad had passed away so I opened it to look at the slides. I found some pictures of Ray that his parents had had taken, and Ray had never seen any of them except the one that his mom had made into an 8x10. Ray was pretty excited to see these pictures. But, what was even more exciting was the negatives that were with them of his parents wedding. The kids had never seen any except the few small ones that were in a photo book as they were growing up. So off we headed to Costco to have them made into big pictures for her funeral. The big picture below is one of the pictures we found. :)Ray and Aunt Kathy. (her and mom were identical twins)Tena getting a hug from Aunt Betty. She is his dad's sister! 
Mickie, Im so sorry for your family's loss.
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