Celebrating a Life

 

Carolee Castagno Renberg 

April 7th, 1951 - June 9th, 2013

 

June 12th was Carolee's funeral in Utah. Tyler and I decided to take Harrison with us, but left Weston with my mom and headed down for a quick overnight trip. My sister and Kevin drove down a bit ahead of us and they picked Christopher up at the SLC airport and then a few hours later as Tyler and I picked Todd up from the airport. It was the first time in three years since all 5 of us were together. Tuesday evening we sifted through boxes of pictures, talked about memories and stories of Carolee, and we also went out to eat.  

 After dinner my dad took us all over to the grave site. My dad had found a less known cemetery in the area - just a few miles away from their home in Cedar Hills. It is small, quiet, perfectly situated between the mountains, and a wonderful view of the lake. It may sound weird, but I think my dad was meant to stumble upon this little cemetery in Lindon, UT.

 

Wednesday morning was the funeral and it was absolutely perfect. Her daughters had taken care of every last detail and everything was beautiful. Carolee was known for her famous chocolate chip cookies so they had passed her recipe out to members of their church and had asked that they each bring a dozen or two to share. There were plates of cookies set up in the foyer, in the hallways, in the viewing room, basically every room you went inside that church had delicious cookies waiting to be eaten.

 (I am in love with these pictures of my dad and Carolee)



 





The grave site dedication was peaceful. And I couldn't help but feel that my feelings of peace were coming from Carolee. She had a very hard fight with cancer - and a slew of other ailments - the last 6 months of her life, and I know that she is now free from the limitations of her physical body.

All five kids and our dad. 

Unfortunately, Tyler and I had to head back home after the luncheon. But I am so thankful that my siblings, especially Chris, were able to stay behind and help my dad with the unsavory task of cleaning and sorting through Carolee's things.

 

Luckily, Tyler and I, and the boys, will be heading through UT in a couple weeks for Tyler's family reunion. So we will get to spend the evening with my dad before we head up the mountains.