Reviewing "Lil' Mama's" funeral

So I reported last week about the death of the author's maternal grandmother, Sallie Mae McMillon a/k/a "Lil' Mama."  Well, the funeral service (or as the evangelical black community insists on calling it, a "homegoing service") took place today here in southern California.  The sites were as follows:

• Memorial service: Mission Ebenezer Family Church in Carson, CA, across from Kmart off Interstate 110
• Burial: Forest Lawn, Long Beach
• Repast (meal and fellowship): Home Town Buffet, Gardena

Although the Barefoot family consists of fictional characters and McMillon was very real - when I passed her body, it hit me that I won't be able to see or speak to her again, at least in this life - I see some similarities and influences between them.

As mentioned in the introduction to my photo book, I built the self-sufficient country lifestyles of the Barefoots after visiting land the McMillon family once owned in Keatchie in DeSoto Parish, LA.  (The village is about 60 miles south of Shreveport in the northwest corner of the state.)  I remember having to climb over a barbed-wire fence to get there, which was very painful.  But when I was able to visit the land, it was all worth it.  The visit revealed a life that I longed for and did not realize it - one in which everyone can fulfill basic needs through hard work, dedication, and taking advantage of what they have.  As Phil Robertson, the "Duck Commander," wrote in Happy, Happy, Happy: "...Even when times were the hardest, I never heard my parents, brothers, or sisters utter the words, 'Boy, we're dirt poor.'"  By the way, chapter 1 of that book is a good description of the same lives the Barefoots would live if they existed, just as much as some of the blog entries I have written.  (To see those, click on "2012," then "September," then four posts near the top with that theme.)

Then there are these:

• Alonzo "Popeye" Barefoot has 10 siblings, five brothers and five sisters; Sallie McMillon had 10 children, four sons and six daughters (and all but one daughter is still alive today).  
• In real life, my brother Tommy was born in 1979, as is Buddy Wayne.
• B.W. was born on March 14, the day between my own birthday on the 13th and my mother's on the 15th.  (I changed it from the original Apr. 7, which I picked, believe it or not, for a no-hitter thrown that day in Major League Baseball.  It was by Ken Forsch for the Houston Astros against the Atlanta Braves.)
• Lil' Mama died exactly 358 days after my niece Havana was born.  In my world, B.W.'s daughter Blanton Elizabeth (Lizzie) is just a year old.