My Cousin's Funeral with Car Chase & Police Escort
Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a first cousin. She was 87, but had had Alzheimer's for ten years, so her death was no great surprise.
The funeral service itself was very nice. My second cousins Bev and Howard, her daughter and son, arranged for the family to go to the cemetary in two 15-passenger mini-buses instead of limos, which I thought was much more comfortable for all. Calverton National Cemetery, is about two hours from NYC, in Suffolk County on Long Island. My cousin was to be buried next to her husband. So, off we went.
We're on the Long Island Expressway, and everything was going swimmingly until about 20 minutes away from the cemetery and the police cars appeared with lights flashing. At first, I thought it was a police escort, becasue they seemed to be moving with us - I mean, what else could it be? But then, about 10 minutes later we pulled over and stopped. I was in the second bus and I saw Howard, who was driving the first bus, get out and by his posture I could see that he was really pissed about something. Then we noticed that the cops had their guns out. They weren't pointing at my cousin, they were pointing at the hearse.
W-T-F?
People in the second bus hadn't been able to see past the first bus, so we had no idea what was going on. Bev, who was also in the second bus, got out to see what the problem was. She came back and told us the cops had the hearse driver handcuffed and on the ground. Evidently, they had been chasing him for over ten miles, trying to get him to stop, because he had been driving very erratically. The Suffolk County Police had gotten several 911 calls from other drivers about his driving. He nearly hit the guard rail twice, AND he was doing over 100mph. I didn't know a hearse could do 80mph. He was finally stopped by police cars boxing him in. The police said the driver was incoherent, his speech was affected, and he was very unsteady on his feet. We all thought he was drunk and we were extremely upset. Then, I think someone had the presence of mind to ask the driver if he had any medical conditions. He was diabetic. When EMS showed up and tested his glucose, it was 40! A reading of 70 is bad enough. He's lucky he didn't pass out and cause a serious accident. The medics gave him a glucose solution and he perked up in a few minutes, but they took him to the hospital all the same.
So, here we are on the shoulder of the LIE with a hearse and no driver, surrounded by several police cars, and only ten minutes away from the cemetery. Now, four people in our party had commercial driver's licenses, but to drive a hearse with a body required a special license or permit or something which we did not have. Several calls were made to the funeral home in Manhattan to get another driver out here. However, when Bev called the cemetery to say we'd be late, they told her if we weren't there by 3:30pm, we would be turned away and it was about 2:30pm already. Several more calls were made, some, I believe, by the cops helping us. 3:00 came and went; 3:30 came and went, no driver. At 3:50pm, two drivers arrived in another hearse. They had been sent from the funeral home's main office in WESTCHESTER! This had to add another 45 minutes, at least, to get to us.
Off we go again, only now there were two mini-buses, two hearses and four police cars, who escorted us all the way to Calverton National Cemetery. I don't know who called whom or what was said, but we were let in with no problem - they remained open for us. We said our final farewells in a little pavilion and left. I think the only thing that could have topped this was being kidnapped by aliens on the way home.
No one in the family will forget this - it will become part of family history. The Suffolk County Police were wonderful, staying with us for over two hours and giving us a much needed escort. One officer said he'd been on the force for 17 years and this was a first for him. If you ask me, this whole thing was like a Tyler Perry script.
Everyone was glad the whole incident ended happily, if weirdly, and my cousin was safely buried.