Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral Quotes

“I think sometimes I think too damn much. I worry about this and that and everything else and then I wake up and four more years have slipped right out the back door.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Death...does this to people. It slaps the living upside the head and it makes us ponder and exchange events and feelings that might stay hidden.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Once," Balinda begins softly, "when I was in the emergency room with my mother they brought in a murderer who had been shot and was dying, right there in front of us. I watched as the nurse touched his face and reassured him and I could not believe they were being so nice to him."

"What happened?" Jill asked.

"My mother rose up, took my arm, gripped it as if she was a weight lifter and said, 'he was a beautiful baby once and his mother loved him'.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Family does not mean people with the same last name or the same DNA. It means people who care about you, who you trust, who you care about--people you can count on.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“...believing in the magic of life, the power of hope, the cosmic sanity of chance and change, and the unmistakable power of love.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“There are so many things to grieve....All the dogs & cats & birds & snakes we have loved & lost, & old lovers, but what else? ... it took me forever to see that one of them was my own daughter, my baby, a young woman I thought of only as a girl, a child, & there she was, suddenly a woman, & I felt this ache gnaw at me as if I hadn't eaten in a year. ... I stood there watching my daughter gesture & move & laugh with the grace of a grown-up, & I just started crying like a baby. It wasn't unlike the same type of sorrow we all feel when we realize something we once had that was very precious is not longer there. That it is forever lost, changed, deceased. Like a baby, gone, except in your memory. ... My own daughter is now a woman. I get it. Another passage, another form of loss, another reason to grieve, another part of this life process.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“:Of course there are many ways to celebrate death & life, & of course as they bounce into their 40's & 50's & 60's, the fingers of time grow a bit longer, & yet ... & yet life doesn't stop. Life doesn't stop or wait even if you do. Pause if you must... but then catch up fast. Run with the wind. Slide down the hill tumbling head first, so that you can fall into the hands of now. Today. Everyday. Every minute. Every second. Of course it's also ok to hold onto your grief, & ride it as if your own life depended on it through a sea of rough waters, waves as high as heaven, through the thunderous barrage of emotions that are the very heart of loss. Any loss. Love. Death. Job. A slice of a segment of your life that made up the whole. Of course... the whole damn world needs to have more fun. A hellofa lot more fun.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“This dying & grief stuff knows no boundaries. It doesn't matter if the pain of loss is for a baby, an elderly parent, someone who drops dead at 30, the sorrow & grief doesn't change because of age.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“For if people could see- if women especially could see- what is real and true and how the elegant possession of what is in each of our individual hearts is what matters more than anything.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Florida Keys. New York City. The North Shore of Lake Superior. A small island close to Seattle. Those”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral: A Novel

“Not only are there many ways to grieve, but showing sorrow, reaching out, being honest about your loss is as important as anything. ... Go kiss someone, go swim naked, go quit the job you hate, go celebrate your own life before it's over. Go. Do something with gusto & gratitude & with a laugh at the back of your throat, a laugh that never ends.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“I love you, & will always love you. We gave each other the world in a way that the other could not always see. ... We are done, & we will never be done.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Life has so many pages to turn, & this page doesn't mean the story is over. The story is never over.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“No matter how together we are, no matter how many friends or kids or partners or dogs or goats we have, there are always moments where we not only feel alone, but lonely.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“They wonder why everyone waits to send the note, make the call, say the one thing you know you should say.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“There's so much of her inside of me, yet we were so different, so very different. Sometimes the guilt I feel, because it took me so long to appreciate her, love her for what she was, & what she did for me almost consumes me.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Her Mother's obituary... her last physical link to the woman who helped for the soul of who she was to become, who she remains, who she will always be. She has read the obituary so many times that it looks as if the piece of paper has been through the wash a dozen times. She wonders if she will ever stop reading it. She holds it, as she held her Mother, finally held her Mother once she crossed over the threshold of adulthood herself, & realized the power of a Mother's love for a child. The sacrifices her Mother made that she never appreciated, & that great gift of patience that can only be learned by becoming a mother.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Why can't we have a funeral the way we want to have a funeral? Why don't we have a funeral to celebrate the way we lived? Tradition be damned. The sadness of the loss needs to honored & embraced, but for now I want to focus on celebrating.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“It's going to be ok, you know that now, don't you? I know there will be something else, but I also know that it will be ok. It has to be ok.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“She knows she will remember these last moments with her Mother every single day for the rest of her own life.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“I have tried very hard over the years to let you know how much I love you, & how I have treasured your place in my life. I choose no formal service because I know that death does not erase my memory in your life, & I suspect that you will not be gone from my lingering spirit either. ... Celebrate! I say! Life, death, living and this process of dying that parallels our lives every single moment.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“The grieving, she knows, never ends, and all that remains is the miracle of love. And she holds onto that miracle as if to save her life.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“All of the women understand schedules. They understand sacrifice. They know what it feels like to never sleep, to always get up first, to wonder in the middle of a day that seems as if it stretches to forever what was the initial question and they know that they all have many more miles to go, more hands to hold, more, so much more yet to give. And to receive.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral: A Novel

“She is sure that tomorrow is not guaranteed and that too many women and men wait so long to say something, feel something, or go someplace. Too damn long”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Worry and life have kept her thin- you can stay thin lifting sick and dying people, driving to the hospital, and planning funerals.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“She orders everyone to their feet & to their drink & to the junction where they can hold their love loves in a place of honor & delight. ... Celebrate the life that was before the death & what it gave you, & what you have even now.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“I've done this before. I know how it works, but I cannot get used to it.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“I'm tired, & supporting the entire world has ruined my back.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Just pause, my loves, remember me, & then keep going.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

“Annie's thing was to concentrate on the living. To honor every day & every person in some interesting way, because that's what you had, just that one moment. ... It 's important to honor a life, the way it was lived, the potential it had to grow & change. ... Saluting someone after they die can be done in a way that allows us to grieve & to celebrate.”
― Kris Radish, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral