Today's the day. New clothes are bought, arrangements made, details published, flowers ordered, a lifetime of photos gathered...in a couple of hours we will be at Grandma's funeral. It is a sad day, but I'm also looking at it as a chance to honor Grandma and to celebrate her legacy.

Speaking of legacy, we had a meeting with her lawyer and the personal representative (essentially the executor) of her will. Grandma's big wish was for her grandchildren (there are 9 of us) to attend "an institute of higher learning". To that end, her estate will be divided in 9 equal trust funds, one for each grand child. The only real way we can each access our trust is to attend an institute of higher learning. If any of the grandchildren choose not to go to college, and also upon graduation, they will receive $200 a month until their trust is gone. Those of us who have not already graduated college, and who do choose to enroll, will receive the funds from our trust to cover tuition, fees, books, etc and also all living expenses during the time we are enrolled.

This definitely changes MY plans for the next chapter of my life, but before I go too far making plans I'm working on getting through today and hopefully there won't be any big ugly family scenes. I don't even know if either of my aunts will be at the funeral, that is where things stand right now. I hope for grandma's sake that there will be a lot of family members there, but it's entirely possible that my family will be the only ones.