The Service

The Service was beautiful. It was held on December 6th. The day started out chilly and ended up being 52 and sunny. As the service started with a beautiful Eulogy by our therapist, you could feel the sun shine and you could hear Ted saying...."Nice turnout!" I had asked the Hospice Chaplain to say a few words also....nothing religous, but he cracked jokes that Ted would have loved. I should get a copy of them from him and post them. A few storys were told and people spoke highly of Ted. Some people wished they had known him better, some wished they had seen him before he passed. But one thing was for sure he would be missed. There was a labrynth and peolple chose a rock that Ted had picked out and took the journey of the labrynth....till they all got stuck in the middle and laughed...cause you know Ted was laughing at them. I didn't get to say hi to everyone that i wanted to. It was so crazy and such a mixed up day. We arrived home to a house full of people. I don't think my house has ever had that many people. I don't think anyone complained. My cousin ate shrimp, he is allergic...he was fine. I think that was the only drama of the afternoon. Until I played the slide show and the the video that Ted left. Some didn't know what I was doing, and i'm sure they were shocked when he came on the TV and said It's time to party. Well something like that. He made us cry, he made us laugh. In the end he said it was going to be ok. I don't know if it is ever going to be ok. But it will be what it will be. The three of us will survivie, we will move on. I know that Ted is there, he is watching over us. He loved us with all he had and if he had a choice he wouldn't have left us.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are going to try. Love to all. Karen and the kids.

If anyone wants to sign the guest book, please go to Pilotonline.com or timesunion.com and go to obits and then onto the guestbook and search "schetzel". I would appreciate it very much. Thanks again.

Cancer Journey

Hi Everyone, I know I haven't blogged inawhile. I've had lots of company. It's just me and kids right now. I"m getting alot of paper work and stuff done. I made a video for the service, it was pictures from the last 5 years. The first year was pretty much healthy, even though he had the cancer and didn't know it. But it does show how much fun we had as a family. I don't expect everyone to watch it. It is long at 21 minutes and especially long if you have no idea who these people are. LOL But I wanted to throw it out there. Did you know you can't post a video longer then 10 minutes on You Tube. Luckily.....Myspace to the rescue. I will be posting about the service soon.

Check out this video: Teds Cancer Journey

Online Guest Book

I decided not to have an actual guest book at the service. The www.pilotonline.com and the www.timesunion.com have a guest book attached to the obituary. You just have to click on the guest book and type in the last name schetzel. In a few months or so I will order the book from the company that sponsers it and I hope to have some really nice notes and memories about Ted.

We are all doing ok. Looking forward to family coming in. It will definatly help and the service will too. Life is definatly different and strange without Ted. We are all missing him more then we thought possible. Everytime we eat something that was his favorite or watch a tv show that he is missing it just breaks our hearts over and over. Im sure time will heal this and having you all in our life will help too. Thank you.

Celebration of Life

Ok..first, I want to let everyone know that the obit will be in the paper tomorrow Dec 2, 2008. It should be in the Albany Times Union and the Virginian Pilot and also online for both papers.

The Celebration of Life service will be at the river pavillion, but because they call it pavillion doesn't mean there is shelter or seats. The chapel that we could have used if it rained is way to small for all of us to fit in. So we are doing it outside where Ted wanted it too be. For many of you that don't know this, Ted and I were married outside in a Gazebo. So it is fitting that we have his service outside. Because they are having a bazar at the church this weekend, we can't use the hall. If it does rain, then either we bring umbrellas or we move it to a different church and i'm really hoping that we don't have to move it. The service is going to be very informal and we are asking everyone that is comfortable to talk and make his service the celebration that he wanted it too be. I've never planned one of these before so i'm very nervous and a little ditzy about it.

Guest that live here i'm asking that they bring any extra chairs that they might have. Lawn chairs or folding chairs. If your from out of town and you can squeeze a couple of folding chairs in your car that mgiht be great too. Again, Ted wanted everyone to wear what they would normally wear. You do not have to dress up.

Family and close friends are gathering at our house after the service. It will be tight but it will be nice and this is how Ted wanted it. If you want to bring a dish, you can bring anything you like. Drop me an email and i'll let you know what other people are bringing.

Well I can't think of anything else right now. I"m going to try and go to be before 1am. This night thing, is not easy and I don't like it. But that is a whole other blog. Thanks so much.