Untold Stories

Another funeral today, my Auntie's. 

It happened to fall on the very day my Dad died, 17 years ago.

My husband quietly said, "Such a short time ago, and yet so long ago."  My sister said, "He doesn't fade, does he?   And I found myself saying, "Seventeen years to the day... a bit strange."

Maybe it's because I still live on Mum and Dad's farm, where memories seem to settle into the land, and I walk it often with my two sisters not far away.

Today my two cousins said goodbye to their Mum. Their families farewelled a mother-in-law, grandmother and great-grandmother. They honoured Auntie beautifully with respect, love and humour. It was exactly as she deserved. She was a happy, resilient soul who shared her love generously with everyone.

And so I caught up with my extended family, the children of my aunties and uncles, who now have children of their own, and the grandchildren of my cousins. Bless them. We shared memories, laughed about Christmases long ago, and remembered those ordinary family moments that quietly become life's greatest treasures.

"Grief is love unseen."

Love never disappears. It simply changes its shape.

It can appear as a tear, a shiver, or a smile when you long for one more hug or one more welcoming smile. Sometimes it arrives unexpectedly in a familiar laugh, an old photograph, or a story told around a table after a funeral.

Bless you, Marion, Bev, Laura and Bill. What families you created.

Meeting the grandchildren of our uncles and aunties is a comforting experience. Their memories mingle with our own, and together they keep our family stories alive. Those stories become the thread that connects generations who never had the chance to know one another.

Perhaps that is why funerals matter so much.

They are not so much about saying goodbye; they are about gathering the untold stories before they are lost. They remind us that love is carried forward in conversations, in laughter, in shared experiences, and in the values that quietly pass from one generation to the next.

And somehow, that makes the unseen love we carry every day in our hearts a treasure we can keep close forever.

What untold story about someone you love deserves to be told before it is lost?