Sophia's favorite color was pink. Claire had the beautiful idea to have the YW all wear pink to honor her. She texted the YW, and word spread. The YW told the YM and they all wore pink ties. I bought Ben a pink tie. The bishopric all wore pink ties.
It was one of the most sacred sacraments I had ever been to. Bishop gave our ward a Bishop's Blessing- something I had never heard of before. In the blessing he blessed us that we would be able to bear the burdens for what we needed to do.
It turns out, I desperately needed to rely on that blessing.
Due to a cruel twist of fate, Matt's Celebration of Life was also at this time. But as RS President, I was in charge of ensuring there was a luncheon for the family. In addition, I was getting literally hundreds of text messages a day asking every question under the sun. There were so many logistics, but also I had my own mourning to try and work through.
I have organized a lot of large events in my life. And I'm good at it. But this nearly broke me.
On Tuesday morning, I had a very small amount of time that I could get to the temple. I went to the initiatory room and said, "I don't have much time. But I need to be here. Can I please do one initiatory and then go sit in the Celestial Room?" They said yes. After the initiatory, I sat in the Celestial Room and cried and cried. I was blessed that I was alone- just the worker was there. So I didn't feel bad sobbing.
The menu for the luncheon was intense. Another of our best friends in our group is a professional chef. Like me, she wouldn't be at the funeral- me for Matt's Celebration of Life, her because her son was getting married in Hawaii on the same day.
She promised me the menu was simple, and she sent it over to me and I didn't recognize half the ingredients.
But, I also know I have amazing women in our ward. We have one family who owns Twisted Sugar and they donated cookies for the luncheon. We hand picked 4 women who we know are good chefs to be in charge of the chicken. Then I sent out a SignUp Genius for things like, "10 heads of raddichio, chopped."
I hated that I wouldn't be there, but I obviously couldn't miss Matt's Celebration of Life- that's literally the one thing I could not miss.
We planned for 150 people for the luncheon.
The planning was intense. Again, literally hundreds of text messages a day. Hundreds of tiny, minute details figured out. Lots of stress and tears on my end. I finally had to remember Bishop's blessing and turn it over to Him and trust it would turn out.
And, it did. The women stepped up- like we always do.
My faith in Relief Society is so strong. I saw it at Matt's funeral and the luncheon the sisters put together for us. I was so grateful to them, and as I saw them putting together a meal for a hundred strangers, I thought, "and my ward would do it, too."
And, the sisters did. Our women are incredible. From everything I heard, the luncheon was absolutely wonderful.
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