Chapter 3
Lilly decided that when a funeral felt like a full-on family reunion, it wasn't much of a funeral anymore. Her granddad's funeral now felt like a family reunion as so many different family members were in attendance, and everyone was happy to catch up. Scott said it was a celebration of Ian's life, but Lilly still didn't think a funeral should have been treated so lightly.
While everyone waited to be able to enter the church, Lilly looked around at her extended family.
There were a lot of people to see.
Firstly, Ella and her husband, Robbie, were in attendance. She was Scott's cousin by marriage, being Catania's cousin, so that made her Lilly's cousin too. She was Ian's niece, and she had brought her twins, fourteen-year-old Millie and Luke. As everyone else did, she looked happy to be at the funeral that had turned into a family reunion. Lilly didn't like it.
The next family member Lilly saw was Josh, and he had brought his wife Kayla, and their daughter, Katrina. Josh was Ian's nephew. Lilly didn't think too much of that because she didn't really have anything to do with Josh and Kayla, and especially their daughter, Katrina. But Katrina looked as though she was about Lilly's age, and she wondered if she was a nice girl.
Cody and Jade's family were in attendance, as well as Ally and Joe, Mason's aunty and uncle who he spoke of during the fish and chip dinner. Lilly had met Ally briefly, but she had never really met Joe, so it was interesting to see them both together at Ian's funeral.
The next family in attendance was Rosie and Noah Anderson's family. Rosie was Amy and Ian's foster daughter, and she and her husband Noah, Scott's high school best friend, had brought their children, Jonathon and Kayden, along with them. Lilly liked Rosie and Noah. As Noah was Scott's best friend, they saw a lot of each other, and Noah had been a part of Lilly's life ever since she was a baby.
And the last family that was in attendance was Candice and Zac's family. Candice was also Amy and Ian's adopted daughter, and they had brought their adorable triplets along, six-year-old Polly, Parker and Patrick. The triplets didn't seem to have much of an idea that a funeral was a sad time, and not one to run amuck and annoy their parents.
Lilly was distracted from her thoughts about family when Scott said it was time to go and greet some people. Lilly would have preferred to wait for Lauren and her siblings to arrive, but Scott said it was okay and they wouldn't have any trouble finding each other.
The first family who Scott wanted to see was Ella and her family. Scott seemed very keen to see Ella, and Lilly had a fair idea as to why. They were very close when Lilly was a baby, and even before she was born. They lived on the same street in Sandy Beach and in fact, they lived right opposite each other. They saw a lot of each other, and Scott often smiled when he said he always remembered Ella skipping across the road to bug him. It made Lilly smile too. Ella was most definitely a character, and Lilly believed skipping across the road to annoy someone was something she would do.
"Scott!" Ella greeted Scott excitedly, "you're here."
"It's good to see you," replied Scott as he gave Ella a hug.
Lilly looked at Ella and her dad as they interacted.
What everyone happy about seeing each other?
It seemed they were.
But they had been brought together because of a death, and it wasn't fair. Everyone was happy to be back together, but they shouldn't have been. Ian wasn't with them, and Amy wasn't either. Everyone had made the joint decision not to bring Amy to the funeral. Her dementia was bad, and she didn't know that her husband had died. In fact, when Lilly had visited her, Amy would always say her husband was at work and she was waiting for him to get home. But, in reality, Amy was in her room at the nursing home, and Ian was at a completely different location in the facility. They barely saw each other towards the end of Ian's life, and that was simply because Amy couldn't understand that Ian was her husband anymore.
