Beauty

I have a beautiful family.

Oh, sure, they've got hearts of gold, they're generous, they're thoughtful and empathetic and can sing and are funny. And fun.

But really? Most importantly? They are beautiful . . .

Beautiful in the good old fashioned sense of the word -- they are delightful to look at. Easy on the eyes. Lovely. Stunning. Blah Blah Blah.

Just stinking beautiful.

Look at this crew, for one small example. Jacquie and her family. The afternoon of Dad's wake. Beautiful? Oh, I think so.

(Thankfully Jacquie's girl has her Aunt Ellie to help with all things beauty, hair-wise . . . )

Dad's funeral was absolutely perfectly sadly and excruciatingly awesome. We had just a weekend to plan the celebration of our hero, our man, our Dad, and as Julie Coyne's mom told her, "The Corey Girls nailed it." And after that wonderful ceremony? We had a luncheon.

And as I've mentioned, we're Coreys; we eat.

It was a beautiful day, in a beautiful setting, and the luncheon was lovely.

It was beautiful.

The very best part, though, was even after that. Most everybody had left, but a core crew -- my mom and my sisters and our men and a few key hangers-on special peeps retired to the front patio . . .

. . . where the sun was shining, the booze was flowing, and we had a chance to laugh and smile and decompose decompress.

I kept looking over at this absolute bevy of gorgeous women with black dresses and great legs . . .

. . . and couldn't stop taking photos of them.

Beautiful? Oh, they're beautiful.

My two oldest nieces -- Quito Girl on the left, and Mistah's and my goddaughter on the right -- read the Prayers of the Faithful at the funeral, and they, well, they nailed it. They had to say things like "For Grammy" and "For Jidoo" and "For the Corey Girls" . . .

. . . and they held it together and read those words strong and true, and didn't lose it. Plus, they looked gorgeous up there. Natch.

Just look at my mom surrounded by her favorite niece-slash-goddaughter Patti, her kid sister Kitty, and her daughters Jane and Ann . . .

. . . and by the little ones.

If you're my mom, and you're as heartbroken as she is, wouldn't you want to be surrounded by such gorgeous women?

Of course you would. We made it our business to surround Mom that day. And ever since.

Oh, and we did have a few yuks that day. And I'm proud to say that, clearly, it was Mom who had us cracking up:

Aw, Mom.

They say beauty is skin deep. They do. And that very well may be true. But I got news for you. That's not all it is.

Beauty is also right there in the open. And it has surrounded me, everywhere I look, these last few weeks. And it helps. It helps to be surrounded by beauty. It's like surrounding yourself with beautiful art, or beautiful writing, or beautiful music.

I'm surrounded by beautiful people.