Well, the luncheon plans have changed. The person who was going to cook Cajun will be out of town. And it's said several people "complained" about the idea of Cajun food (I don't care that much for it myself, but I wasn't going to say anything).

So now it's Tex-Mex/Southwestern. And I've been drafted to make tamale balls. Which pretty much everyone likes. (And I like 'em too, except the recipe makes such a huge amount that I never make them just for myself, because I'd be eating tamale balls forever. And it doesn't cut in half easily).

So, no need to hunt for a plastic alligator. (I still might, on the off thought that we might do Cajun some time in the future.)

***

The "celebration of life" for my mom's friend Faith was Sunday. My mom said it was very nice - one thing they did was had five of her favorite hymns, which I tend to think is always a good tribute at a funeral (and also a nice way to remember the person - you don't always know their favorite hymns and so sometimes there's the surprising recognition of "Oh, that's one of my favorites too!" or "Gee, that's interesting that that one was one of their favorites")

One thing her daughters did - she had had quite a collection of dressy hankies, and they brought them to the church and encouraged all of Faith's friends to take one if they wanted one to remember her by. And they encouraged my mom to take one for me, as I had been a friend of Faith's, even if I couldn't be there. So she did.

I'm thinking what I might do is like what I did with another special handkerchief I had: make a pillow (like to go over a pillow form) and then applique it on the front.

I have a whole stack of ones I've picked up over the years with the plans to use in a quilt (I have a very pretty pattern where you fold the handkerchiefs to look like butterflies, and then applique them on squares. But I've just never gotten around to doing it). But I think I'd rather keep this one separate, as a memento.

I also have several quilts that she quilted on.

I wonder what will happen to the quilter's group at my mom's church; Faith was kind of the backbone of it. I hope they can recruit some new people to come and quilt. (If I lived there, and if I were at all free on the day when they quilted, I would be there. I try to go whenever I'm up for a visit.)

My mother had also written a very nice note to the family and apparently took more time over it than some people did with theirs (that's how my mom is) and she said it seemed to be very meaningful to her daughters.