difficult defn: not easy; requiring great mental effort to comprehend or endure

This week has been difficult. In fact, this week is a week disguised as month, I'm sure of it. It all started on Sunday evening, when Grannie peacefully passed away. It's incredibly difficult to come to terms with the fact that you will never see somebody who has been there everyday since as long as you can remember and who has been an important somebody in your life, but this isn't a blog post about grief.

This is a blog post about the little bits of joy in between the bits of grief, bits of sadness, bits of anger and bits of complete overwhelming-ness (yes, is this a word?). Amidst all of these little bits, my faith in people was restored. My family, all 15 us, were completely united this week through a shared loss. I haven't seen my family support each other the way we have this week. We were all humbled by the number of people who came to pay their respects, because they too knew and loved Grannie or because they knew and loved one of us. We were touched by the number of people who took time out in the middle of their week to attend Grannie's funeral. We were shocked to see police salute Grannie's coffin and cars slow to a stop as the hurst drove past.

In Ireland, funerals are a big deal, and a catholic funeral is a really big deal. But if anybody in this family deserves a big deal send-off, it was Grannie. And I will most certainly have more to say in another few days, when I process things another little bit.

difficult defn: not easy; but not impossible