Where to start?

Maxine R. Pergler

May 31, 1923- June 8, 2007

After getting the news about my grandma, we had to quickly move into planning and logistics on how to get us all to Michigan (while there are 50+ teachers at my house for the last day of school party). My sweet Mom already had previously booked plane tickets to fly to Michigan the day after school got out for her, so we quickly decided that she would have a little person named Meredith join her. This is not quite how I envisioned Meredith's first plane trip, but it was a necessary thing because the rest of the Raleigh crew rented a big van and made the 17 hour trip a day later. Mom said that she did really well overall. She was totally fascinated by everything on the plane, especially the tray table (she wasn't happy when that had to be 'stowed'). Sounds like she provided some entertainment for other passengers as well, mom assures me that it was the good kind :) So, Elizabeth and Abby & Jessie were all there to greet Mom & Meredith in Traverse City and Meredith got to have some unexpexted quality time with her cousins.

The rest of us left early Sunday morning in the big ol 12 passenger van (trust me, we needed all that space for 6 adults!) and the trip went very well overall. We got to Michigan and were able to spend Monday resting and processing the events that would come. Tuesday, June 12th was the funeral at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Cadillac, which was my grandma's lifelong church and where my parents, aunt and sister were all married and my two nieces were baptized. I am very fortunate that I have had to attend very few funerals in my life, but that doesn't make it any easier. It was good to see all of my family and the service was nice...what else can you say?

The best part of the whole thing was when my amazingly strong mother spoke about both grandma and grandpa and their lives together and the wonderful family they have created. I will never forget her grace and strength as she spoke.

Meredith obviously had no clue what was going on and was her normal squirmy self, so Chris spent most of the service with her in the nursery. There was the good Lutheran luncheon to follow in the fellowship hall.

The church is set way back off the road and the little girls had a blast just running through the field and it was really special to see those kids having so much fun together. We knew grandma would love that.

Later that day we spent some time at the lake and Meredith totally loved it. She was a little hesitant at first, but once she got past that initial chill (this is northern Michigan afterall!) she was just a little waterbug.

Early the next morning we headed south towards Battle Creek to the cemetary. My grandfather is buried at Ft. Custer National Cemetary, so that is where grandma would join him after 15 years. It really is a beautiful place and there is something comforting about knowing they are together again after so many years.

After lunch, the Raleigh crew got back in the van to head south again. Meredith was with us this time since Mom was still staying for a few more days. I have to admit that I was quite worried about how she would do on such a long trip, but she did amazingly well. At one point we all sang to her because she was getting a little fussy and she stopped and just looked at all of the silly adults around her and just grinned. It did help that a lot of the trip was late at night so she could sleep, but I was totally impressed (the new addiction of Doritos did help us through a few rough spots though!). We arrived home around 3:30am on Thursday morning and Allison and I both had class that night, so we slept as much as we could that day and headed to class that night.

Oh, I forgot to mention the fabulous way our trip started. There was a terrible thunderstorm on Saturday night that knocked out the power at our house. Well, we assumed it would be back on soon, so Chris and I headed out to grab some dinner since Meredith had left that morning with mom. Well, as we drove we saw that all of the Leesville area was without power, so it was really big. Let's just say that packing by candlelight isn't ideal, not to mention it was hot as heck without the AC on. So the lights still weren't on the next morning and we left for our trip hoping everything had made it into the suitcase, having a terrible night's sleep and showering in the dark. We had to call our neighbor to come over and make sure things were turned off and reset the thermostats bc it didn't come back on until noon the following day. It was just the icing on the cake at that point.