Krazy Koalas

Jason is fortunate enough to have a large incredibly loving family. His father Joe is the oldest of 6 children (all J-names) and all of the sibblings except one has anywhere from 2-3 children themselves. Suffice to say Jason has more than double the first cousins I do.

My family is huge on my mother's side, but they are all second cousins. I mean, I totally win in that department but we're talking 9 first cousins. And they are all pretty close and grew up together.

All of the cousins + one cousin's baby.

I am fortunate enough to have the Koalas as a surrogate family. I adore Jason's family and I can't wait to (eventually) be part of it.

They are all fun, exciting people who just enjoy life and the company of their friends and family. What more could you ask for?

Well they are also very supportive during hard times. I got to see this first hand this weekend when all the Koalas gathered together to pay their last respects to Grandpa Joe.

I'd only ever met Grandpa Joe a handful of times. By the time I regularly visited the family in New Hampshire he was no longer living with Jason's family and instead was in an assisted living home nearby. So I never spent a whole lot of time with the man but he seemed pleasant when I did interact with him. I had to respect a man who helped raise six children on a shoestring budget and served in the AirForce as well. Alls I can say is they don't make them like that anymore.

Jason drove up to me Friday morning and his cousin Matthew met us after a midterm and we all drove up to NH together. Made it there for part of the wake and spent some time catching up with the Syracuse Koalas that I met a few years ago.

The funeral mass the next morning was a traditional Polish Catholic mass. It was a little different from the Roman Catholic masses I'm used to but the church was beautiful.

Jason's mother was wondering about what the deal would be for the burial. Since Grandpa Joe spent so many years in the AirForce he was entitled to a colorguard and a salute. She had heard that at least two Airmen would be there, and if they were lucky maybe three. Well we were all surprised to see two Airmen to fold and pass along the flag AND a full colorguard with three riflemen.

The salute was touching. I think by this point we all know how I feel about the men and women who give their lives to protect our country.

After the burial we all went to a local diner's party hall and had a meal together. There were easily about 50-60 people (most of which were immediate family) who gathered together to have a meal in Grandpa Joe's honor.

Joe, John, Jeff, Jim, Janice & Jennifer Koala
Yeah, you heard me.

This is where things got fun. I use the term lightly because after all we were at a funeral but in my opinion funerals should be a celebration of the life the person had...not a sad affair.

All of us of similar age (college students/grads) sat down at a table together and immediately dubbed it the "fun table" and hit the bar. That is where Amanda introduced me to a Grateful Dead. Basically imagine a Long Island Iced Tea except instead of soda, there's a splash of Chambord. So essentially the only non-liquor part to the drink is the sweet&sour mix. They're fantastic.

When dessert came Joey was at the bar getting a drink so Doug decided that he would pay his son Shawn $5 if he could finish off Joey's ice cream before he got back. Again: this is why I love this family. The look on Joey's face when he got back to the table and his ice cream plate was empty was priceless. Luckily the waitress had witnessed the whole thing and was ready with another ice cream for Joey. But really, just good clean family fun!

Apparently it is Koala tradition to go around the room and introduce yourself when you don't know everyone. And this is why I love this family: we went around the room despite the fact 90% of it was immediate family - and everyone was introduced.

It all went something like this:
Jennifer: Hi I'm Jennifer.
Everyone: Hi Jennifer!
Jennifer: I'm six of six... [meaning she is the sixth child out of six] ...and I'm mom to so and so and wife to so and so.

This went on for a good 15 minutes. I shit you not. EVERYONE was introduced either by themselves or by a parent or sibling.

And what's a family party without a ridiculous story:
When we got around to Jason's mom she popped up and the following amazingness occurred.

Sue: Hi I'm Sue!
Everyone: Hi Sue!
Sue: I'm Joe's wife and mother to Joey, Amanda, Jason and our soon to be daughter-in-law Elise! ...

Amanda: [As an aside to Jason] Aw hell, Mom just called you out in front of everyone!
Jason: [To me] Surprise!
Me: Does your Mom know something we don't?

Throughout the rest of the meal people were coming up to us laughing asking if we were actually engaged or if it was just a joke. I personally thought it was hilarious. The whole weekend while everyone was catching up with Jason and found out he got his full time position the next question was, So when are you getting engaged then? I mean I guess it's common knowledge to everyone in his family that we didn't want to rush into anything and we wanted to wait until Jason was settled and we were both financially stable before we got engaged.

So add Jason's job with his mom's choice phrase and apparently as far as his family is concerned we're engaged now.

Sunday morning Jason's mom and I were talking and she felt so awful about what she had said and how she had embarrassed me. I just didn't want to call you his girlfriend because you're more than that, you're family. But I guess it came out wrong. I love her, she's wonderful and I don't embarrass easily in fact I honestly thought it was funny. In fact, the only thing I felt bad about was the fact that she felt so horrible about embarrassing me. Really, it's okay!

We had to head back home early on Sunday so Jason would have enough time to drive back down to Virginia so we missed the trip to the bowling alley. Grandpa Joe was a huge bowler so the family went to bowl for Grandpa which I thought was great.

When I kick it I don't want a funeral. I think funerals come so close after someone's passing that you don't have enough time to mourn and it's just all to final. I'd rather donate my organs, be cremated and have the people I love get together and have a party in celebration of my life. Then when enough time has passed and everyone is ready to actually say goodbye, go on a vacation to Key West, sprinkle my ashes on the beach and have a margarita. That's what I want, listen to me know believe me later.

Celebrate life!