Carrie's memories

Carrie's service was awesome. As befits her. There was this amazing slide show of her life that played in the background before we got started (most of us couldn't watch much without loads of tears - but Joannie who thinks of everything put tissue on all the tables) (and somebody else scattered 4-leaf clovers all over, representing 4H that Carrie was so into).

There were a good 300 people there - 200 seated and another 100 standing in the back. Henry (Carrie's sister Sarah's husband) played pipes (they're like bagpipes, but no blowing) and he's amazing. People spoke about Carrie and we all lost it. Even the kids that were sitting in front were amazingly well behaved (except Erik, who got dragged out by a stranger! - I didn't notice but his mom did). I think that Kodiak puts something in the water to make the kids so nice and helpful and well-behaved.

Here's Rachel (Carrie's youngest sister) and me and Sarah "Bird" (one of Carrie's dearest friends; she lives in Juneau now).

I know I have issues, but I look at Rachel and am so amazed that her oldest child is 11. I still see Rachel as 11, about how old she was when I met her. Don't get me wrong - she's a very responsible, mature adult whom I have tremendous respect for - but if she's really in her 30's, that makes me old (and no, Tiffany - you and Rick look exactly the same as 7 years ago!). It doesn't help that she's married to Todd, whom I will eternally see as 11; though I think he's a fabulous adult and had a great time with him on this trip, I picture his goofy grin when he used to come over and visit with my brother when they were little. They still live in Sitka, though they might move for his construction business. (Which will apparently pass on to Tyler. As they drove me past a building site of some sort, Tyler said, "A normal person, they look and they see a pile of dirt. A construction man, he looks at that and sees cash." Todd was so darn proud.)

John said that every Sitkan has a smiley happy face stamped on their foreheads. Can you see it on us? I laughed at him, but there's something to it - we are all nice people. Things have really, really changed in Sitka now - and not for the better (damn rich people invaded) - but we all still carry the impressions of better times. We'll always be Sitka girls, even when we don't live there.

Here's Lisa (another of Carrie's dear friends, we were all high school friends; she lives in Bush Alaska with her teacher husband) and Sue (Carrie's mom, still in Sitka) and me and Sarah (Carrie's sister, lives in Juneau with teacher husband). I wish we'd gotten Carl in the picture too, but he was photographing.

The thing that always struck me about the Burgesons was how darn nice they were to each other and how well they got along. What's really fun to see how is how that has extended out to embrace the three son-in-laws and the 5 grandchildren. They are so loving with each other, it's awesome.

Here is Erik Gunnar, the orange boy here. He is very, very lively and he kept me in stitches. He's only 4, but he has such sense of self - introducing himself to strangers and running around. John kept giving all the kids sugar which Sarah promptly would take away, but I have the feeling that Erik is ALWAYS so animated. Wish I'd taken pics of all the kids.
Here's me and John (Carrie's husband) and Sarah and Henry, her husband (a teacher in Juneau, Erik's parents). We totally invaded John's space and we all felt completely at home.
Here's Mary, the daughter where I stayed, with a delicious torte she made for the potluck after Carrie's service. And at the service she was incredibly helpful and really made things happen - like her mother and all the other Powerful Women. I'm used to always being somebody who jumps in and helps, but I got to really just sit back and let them take care of EVERYTHING. It was so special, how much they loved Carrie and how it overflowed onto all of us.
Here's about half the food brought for the service. It was INCREDIBLE. I just kept watching more and more food arrive - I've never been at a potluck anything like this. And all the food was so yum. I've always known food = love, but it was really shown in how people rose to the occasion. In the background is Robin, whose house I stayed at with her generous hospitality, and Joannie, who is a chief Powerful Woman (as John calls them). She entertained 40 of us at her house to give us the chance to hang out in a nice environment, and when she asked if I wanted anything to drink I started to get up to get water and she pushed me right back onto my chair with a death grip. I think of myself as a pretty Powerful Woman, but I wouldn't mess with Joannie when she's in the zone. :)
Here's the view from the deck of Robin and Dave's house. It was bitter cold there, even did some rain-snow mix. The temp jumped 55 degrees for me - it's 88 here in New Orleans, which was brutal to step out to.

Dave said, when they were building the house, that he was going to build a deck where the sun always shone. And so he did. :)

This was a very, very sad trip but I'm glad I made it - it was really great to see everybody, though I never lost the feeling that somebody was missing. Everything went off without a hitch (even -I left my phone charger at Robin and Dave's and I was stressed about having to go straight to Target from the airport at rush hour, but in Minneapolis I walked past a shop that had exactly what I need for less than I expected to pay), and now I'll dig into studying.

I even got about 2 hours of sleep last night/this morning (from Anchorage to Sitka I had a whole row to myself so stretched out and slept soundly), which added to the 5 hours the night before and the 4.5 the night before that and the 4.5 the night before that .... I'm only 16 hours sleep deficient. Which will start catching up tonight - hopefully I can sleep! And I did get quite a bit of studying done. I'm still utterly unprepared for my exams, but I'm certain that I made the right choice to go, if it brought any level of comfort to anybody. And for me, the closure is good.

I will always miss Carrie. Even though we haven't been in close contact lately, I always thought she'd be there to visit again someday and that we'd just pick up where we left off.