Small town kindness

Back in October I posted about how much I love the Super 8 in New Hampton, IA. Click the link to read the story if you haven't already read it but basically it's about how small towns in Iowa still exist in a bubble of friendliness and customer service (in the case of the hotel).

Tonight I was talking to my family and they said that "Aunt Sandy is putting together a casserole and then heading back over to the house". When I went back to Iowa for Grandma's funeral eight weeks ago we were headed to the house from the airport and told Mom and Dad that we would likely stop for lunch on the way and they said "Don't bother....there is plenty of food here that people have dropped off." It also amazed me that at the reception after Grandma's funeral, where they had sandwiches for hundreds purchased from the store, the rest of the food was donated by townspeople and family. There were dozens of small bowls of potato salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and desserts. Everyone pitched in.

I asked Lincoln tonight that if, God forbid, something happened to one of his parents or another family member, would the house be swamped with casseroles and such? He looked at me like I was crazy. He said "No, they would probably send flowers. It's just not done that way out here." I find that so sad. I was so moved and so amazed by the outpouring of love through small gestures at Grandma's funeral and I can only imagine it will be the same way at Linus's. Lincoln did admit that in the heavily Italian and Irish families around here that it would likely be similar but that for his family it probably wouldn't happen.

The other thing that amazed me at Grandma's funeral was the number of small donations that poured in through the envelopes provided at the funeral home. There were hundreds of envelopes - most containing $5 each - that added up to almost $2,000. A little bit goes a long way. When I came out of Grandma's house after the reception my father and his seven siblings were sitting around a long table going through all the envelopes and writing out thank you notes. They had a great assembly line going but I still pitched in to help. Uncle Joe, Uncle Linus, and I worked as a team at the end of the table. I never imagined in a million years that eight weeks later I'd be preparing to attend Linus's funeral. And that's Reason #389 that I burst into tears today.