Saturday at church, for Andy's funeral, I was quite impressed with the morticians who were handling the care and such for the family. Afterward, when everyone else had moved into the Fellowship Hall, I spoke to the man who seemed to be in charge and thanked him for taking such good care of "my family". The lady with him and he thanked me for the compliment and reminded me it was their job, but it seemed like so much more than only a job to them.
Later on, when talking with Fran and her son, Dennis, about the art work, I mentioned to them how wonderful the funeral director seemed to be. They were impressed with the care they provided, and told them what I said to the guy.
Monday the available members joined the family at the National Cemetery for the committal service. What a nice crowd there was! We gathered first at welcome center where we could visit until the caravan left for the site. I had a chance to chat some more with Dennis and his wife. He was wondering how the service was going to be, as he was already weeping a bit. I told him it would be extremely significant as well as emotional, and important for us all. Then, he hugged me and said, "Thank you for calling us your family...." Of course, I meant it, but it was nice to have that acknowledgement.
Six men served again as pall bearers, and the funeral director presented them all with a boutonniere. Very nice touch, I thought. Brad came and stepped in as pall bearer in Frank's place. Frank was able to attend, as he works next door at the prison as an electrician, but was in work clothes.
The military Honor Guard were already in place, immediately playing Taps and doing the flag folding ceremony. Mikey was quite moved starting with the taps, taking the whole thing quite hard. Saturday he had held up nicely but the committal was harder. Might have been the playing of Taps, the flag folding, or Kristi singing "America, the Beautiful" which put him away. And me, as well!
It was a glorious day weather-wise. I had ridden out with Judy and Michael C., at their invitation. Love that! I stood with Terri, who was also extremely moved since her dad's committal service was held here as well. The tears were flowing all around, hearing others sniffling or seeing them blow their noses. It might have been in sympathy for Mikey, too, since he was struggling so with the passing of his grandpa.
Pastor had a couple readings and then we were dismissed. The hostess for the cemetery urged us to move along as another committal was coming right behind ours, but we did linger a bit, saying good-bye to the family as they headed back to their homes. Andy's cousin hugged me and said, "You just make it all so nice, with that smile of yours..." He was a sweetheart. His wife had taken our picture earlier at the Center.
As I said good-bye to Dennis and his family, he hugged me and thanked me for being so welcoming to them when they come down to visit. As we parted he said, "Take care of her..." and I promised I would take good care of Fran. I love my family!
Judy, Michael, and I joined Terri in visiting her dad's grave-site. We had to walk a distance as the road was busy with trucks taking care of another burial. Pastor joined us for this. Terri had a bouquet of artificial flowers to place at his marker and I had a small flag along in my purse. I stuck it in the vase with the flowers and Terri took a picture of it.
How remarkable this place has grown in the two years since Gordy's committal. I said we should have asked Kristi to come with us to sing something there and Pastor said, "You could sing something, you're a soprano...". I said, "No, I don't think I could do it." Terri said I could sing something cheerful and we all decided that even Happy Birthday would put me away that day!
