Explaining the Poem

My best friend lost her Grandpa about a week ago. Unfortunately I can't go to the funeral. Unfortunately not because I love funerals, but because I really want to support her. The first couple of funerals that I attended I remember very odd things about. I remember legs and very tall grownups. I remember a lot of laughter and tears. I remember touching the cold face of my Great Grandmother. I remember the smell of the flowers. I remember my father trying not to cry.

Actually its my father's crying that always gets to me. My father is a good hearted, slightly sarcastic, bald, 50 something runner. He tends to come off as very strict or scary to people when they first meet him (my high school friends where all terrified of him at first). When he cries he tends to pretend at first that he is not crying. When that fails, he tries to hold it in. Whenever he cries my sister and I are sure to start. Its hard not too. So the poem is kind of my memories all mixed together. Memories of all those funerals I've gone too, both from my childhood and those that are more recent. Its in honor of those that we have lost, and yet more importantly it is in honor of the life they lived.