If there was a silver lining to returning to Iowa for my father's funeral, it was that I got to reconnect with that side of the family. I don't often coincide my trips with "family" events, and I live far enough away from most of them that it had been several years (and many in some cases) since I'd seen many of them.
In this picture, we're all wearing clip-on bow ties in honor of my dad, who often wore the real thing. (I don't think there was enough daylight left for us all to manage real ones, although I never had trouble tying them myself.) It was a gorgeous day, and this is taken on the back steps of the Outing Club in Davenport, where we had the reception and which was across the street from the church where the service was held.
