Grandpa's Memorial

Grandpa's memorial was this past Saturday. It was held at St James, the church he (and Grandma) attended for decades. The ceremony was organized primarily by my Uncle Tom, and I feel very fortunate and honored that I was asked to do a reading from the Book of Wisdom, particularly since I am not religious. Aunt Joanne also did a reading, and the eulogy Uncle Tom wrote and delivered was extremely well done--I don't think there was a dry eye in the entire church by the time he was done.

Grandpa's condo is literally right around the corner from the Church, so we walked back to the clubhouse in his complex for the reception. My cousin Jesse put together a very cool slideshow featuring Grandpa, all of his kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. My uncle Denny put together a DVD of footage from the 40s and 50s (in color!) which was really mind-blowing, it felt like time traveling to see Grandpa and Grandma, my own mother, and all of my aunts and uncles as infants and toddlers.

The biggest surprise of the evening was the arrival of nearly all of Great Uncle Roland and Aunt Monnie's grandchildren. A little history first--my grandfather Ray Reiss and his brother Roland Reiss married two sisters, my grandmother Margaret Lenahan and her sister Monnie Lenahan. The four of them lived in the same house in Solana Beach for years, and although my family visited them many many times over the years we rarely saw any of Monnie & Roland's grandkids. So, I met four of these cousins for the first time on Saturday! We managed to get everyone in a group shot, probably the first and last time so many Reiss cousins will be together in one place. They were planning on attending both the memorial and the reception, but unfortunately San Diego's airport was completely fogged in so their flight was delayed 4 hours. I'm really glad they were able to make it to the reception, it was nice visiting with all of them.

I also enjoyed catching up with all of my 1st cousins, Aunts and Uncles. This was the first time I had seen my cousin Danny Fitzpatrick in something like 12 years, and the first time he and his sisters were all together in nine years! Many stories were exchanged and there was a lot of laughter as we remembered Grandpa.

There were also a LOT of photos taken, and in an effort to make it easier to share them, I set up a photo sharing group on Flickr. There are currently 7 members but so far it looks like I am the only one that has added photos to the pool. I invited all of the relatives for whom I have an address, so if you would like to add photos to the group but have not yet received an invitation please let me know and I'll send one to you. I can be reached at mattstevenson.geo ( at ) yahoo.