I heard about my friend’s grandmother passing away over the weekend from her father, but that was the extent of my knowledge until Jeremy Gustafson sent me a link to the obituary in a local newspaper. They were holding a visitation this afternoon with the funeral tomorrow; since I wanted to support my friend, I showed up today prepared to give lots of hugs and comfort. (Awwww…)
As it turned out, I was running behind schedule this afternoon and opted to take a shower and skip shaving, saving myself half an hour or so—my facial hair fights back if I don’t cut it every two or three days. So I went to the visitation clean, but very scruffy. That had its upsides and downsides.
Upside: I was there at a decent time to give lots of hugs and comfort. I got to see a few photo albums of her grandmother, talk with some relatives, lighten the mood when I could… I’m glad I showed up and it sounded like my friend and her family appreciated the support.
Downside: when you’re giving a hug to someone who has long, smooth, silky hair, it can get caught in scruffy facial hair… forget can. It does get caught in scruffy facial hair. When I stood up and leaned back, a lock of her hair followed me. It looked and felt pretty silly, but when a 7-year-old who’s going stir-crazy sees someone’s head attached to someone’s face by long hair, it makes him laugh and slightly less stir-crazy for a couple minutes, so I suppose it wasn’t all bad.
I decided to keep this blog entry as generic as possible for the sake of my friend’s privacy, so there’s no guarantee that she’ll read it and know I’m referring to her. (I would hope so, but some people…) Regardless, I want her to know that if she ever needs me for hugs and comfort again, I’ll be there. And I’ll be clean-shaven next time, too.
