Sounds a bit like my Mom's funeral. She was active, though in somewhat quiet ways, throughout our parish, and was well loved, and not just by our family. There were tears at her funeral, but a lot of joy, too.
I wore my brightest dress, one that she had loved and helped me pick out. I didn't think she would want to see us in black.
My eyes are watering just typing it.
Grama and I talked a lot about things of the Lord. I knew that at her funeral she would want certain things said.... the gospel in particular. I knew she wanted family members to know that she had known where she would end up.
I didn't know until after I finally accepted Christ 15 years ago what kind of things she had been through in her prayer life praying for my mom and dad and us kids. She knew we weren't being taught about salvation in Christ but our family structure was such that she really couldn't *say* anything. She was VEY joyful when I accepted Christ even though she didn't know about it for a few days. Over the next 14 1/2 years before her death she shared her concerns about my mom and my brothers and other people in the family. She WANTED the truth to reach them.
The pastor my mom chose for the funeral was not who Grama wanted. But, when Mom said us kids could get up and speak I knew deep down within me that it was going to be up to me to speak the words that would reach out for Christ. Grama was Baptist but she completely supported me getting my ministry credentials and understood that I was in a church that ordained God-called women. She loved it too.
You know, I've preached to a lot of different types of people and I always carefully prepare. At Grama's funeral I had one phrase and 2 scriptures and that was all. I can't remember what I said at all - but over and over people have come up to me and told me how much my words meant to them. Even the Baptist preacher came up to me after the funeral and told me I had an annointing to preach the gospel. It was pretty weird - in a God way.