The past couple of weeks have been very eventful. The first important thing that happened was the Funeral for Keelan Spencer Pond. Keelan is our cousins' Spencer and Megan's little boy. He passed away on Thursday April 10th, 2008 at home while taking a nap with his big sister. He was 17 months old. It has been a very difficult experience for Spencer and Megan, but it has been beautiful to see the love of their family as they have all pulled closer together. Gilbert and Deanna had all of their children and grandchildren home and together the whole week as they and Megan's family supported Spencer and Megan through this hard week. Last Sunday they had a very special family testimony meeting at home and Megan says since that time everything has been different. It was great to visit with them and to hear happy memories of Keelan and experiences of love and hope they have been feeling to comfort them and soften the heartache. They spent the week preparing for the funeral. The boys -Gilbert, Tyler, Morgan and Spencer- built the casket for Keelan and all the girls made the lining. Megan's family did the beautiful flowers. It turned out beautiful as you can see in the photo. Allaina made a hand mold of Kellan's hand on the day of the funeral. There were so many sweet testimonies shared and the hope of the gospel - that little children who die before the age of accountability are alive in Christ, that their salvation is sure, that there really will be a resurrection and Christ has broken the bands of death for all of us, and that families can be eternal through sacred sealing ordinances, and that Christ knows our feelings, has felt our pains, and can lift and carry us through the heartaches. It was a beautiful day too - the sun was shining and everything went so nice. Spencer and Megan's ward prepared a wonderful meal, and it was wonderful to be together as family. As hard as funeral's are, they are so nice to help remind us of what is truly important - our family, and treasuring each moment of our short time here on earth.
For Brent and I, it was special to gather our children around us. To hold them close and share our testimonies of our Heavenly Father's plan for all of us. Jane had a lot of questions about MaryAnne and we talked a lot. The children were so happy at the funeral. I think in some way they understand better than all of us what is happening - about heaven, about returning home to our Father. This experience brought back a lot of memories and feelings for us. It brought back the memories of the loss, and also the memories of all the kindnesses that family, friends and neighbors did for us. Thank you all over again to all of you who were so good to us - the kind gifts, the notes, the friendship, the listening, the hugs, the flowers, the money, the poems, the cards, the baskets, the funeral arrangements, the dinners, everything. It felt as though others just carried us as we were going through a dream. Thank you for being there for us. It was wonderful to see the same love and comfort and sharing happening for Spencer and Megan. We love them very much and look forward to spending more time with their family.
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