Earlier this week, Paul and I made an unexpected trip back to the south.
After a long life, Paul's 100 year old great-grandfather passed away. We got the news on Sunday morning and we caught a last minute flight to Memphis on Sunday afternoon.
Paul's love for his grandparents is so evident. When we got news that Pop wasn't doing well, there was no doubt in either of our minds that when the time came, we wanted to be there. When Paul and I first started dating, his family in west Tennessee made me feel welcome. Since their family is so big, it was a little overwhelming at first. I don't have a large family, so when I started to meet what felt like hundreds of "Coulstons" and "Tapps", I didn't know if I'd fit in. But in no time, I started to feel like family.
Paul is so blessed with such wonderful grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins over in west Tennessee and it meant a lot to him to be there with them as they laid Pop to rest. It meant a lot to me, too. Not everyone gets so lucky to have a family that they're close to and it's even less common to have a family that loves and accepts their wife into the family, too. And that's what that group in west Tennessee has done for me. Accepted me. Welcomed me. Loved me.
And when those hundreds of Coulstons and Tapps made their way to the visitation, funeral and then Paul's grandparent's house for a meal, you really couldn't help but smile and know how loved Pop was and how special his life will always be to everyone in those families.
Love and Happiness,
Bethany
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