My wife and I may not have any children but we do have at least a dozen God-children. Some are actual God-children and some we euphemistically call, God-children. One very precious lady, our niece, the daughter of my wife's late brother. This lady has been a part of our life since she regularly stayed with us as a child when her mother battled breast cancer.
She's in her sixties now, a mother of three and a grandmother too. We joined her today to say farewell to the man whom she has known and loved for more than forty-five years. He too succumbed to cancer. Our niece didn't want the funeral to be one of mourning, we were told, "Please don't wear black."
All the ladies attending were asked to wear something floral, so I thought of, and dismissed the idea, of wearing one of my Hawaiian shirts. In the end I text the lady a couple of photos of my chosen attire. The text came back: "Love it, love it, love it!" It seemed to make an impression on the funeral directors too, or at least the lady who was solemnly dressed in black and wearing a black top hat, who led the cortege.
Photographing the floral tributes after the service the lady asked our niece who were we. "My God-parents," she said, "and before you ask, they always dress like that." Our niece and a second niece/God-daughter, my sister-in-law's daughter, are going to come and stay sometime in the not too distant future. But the widow needs time to grieve first and be comforted by her children. It was a mixed day, tears and laughter. We are truly blessed to call her: God-daughter and to have her and her family, in our lives.