Hrm.
So...
We spent most of the weekend mourning, holding on. The El Cajon coroner wouldn't work on weekends, so we had to wait until Monday for the local funeral home to contact us; we set everything up on... Tuesday, I think. My sisters borrowed close to $5000 so we could pay for the funeral (they didn't want to take a check from people who were from another state, or a credit card.) Once we paid up, all we had to do was... well, wait until Thursday.
So we did.
The wake was held from 6 PM to 9 PM at the Helms Brothers Funeral Parlor in Calexico, California (my sorta hometown). It went... well... fine, I guess. It was kinda strange seeing my father in that coffin, but at least he looked better than he had for a long time. We arrived at 5:30 and spent a half hour with him, alone. After that people started trickling in. I saw a lot of people who I knew - and a lot that I didn't. Relatives from way up north came, including my father's younger brother, and some relatives from two towns over. Luckily, nobody really got hurt or fainted or anything. I was concerned because a lot of the people who were attending are, well, pretty old.
The funeral home guy shooed us out at 9 PM. He seriously shooed us out. I almost expected him to get a brook to get rid of all the loud Mexicans in the building. XD
The funeral was on Friday morning, and I was one of the pallbearers. I got to church at 8:30 or so and waited for the rest of my family to arrive (they all stayed at mom's Calexico apartment, while I went back home). The mass didn't take long, about 40 minutes. I was just ticked off that:
A) The priest didn't even get my father's name right;
B) They made a big deal out of some prayer that someone was supposed to say, and the priest didn't even let us do that
C) The guy took his sweet time arriving for the funeral, and the actual burial.
All the proceedings were finished by 10:30 AM. After that, my sister's godfather invited pretty much everyone to his house to eat... grilled steak. Yes, I realize that's weird. But it was spur of the moment, so the majority of people went there. We were... well, still sad, but being around a ton of people helped much. And the food was good. Dad loved making grilled steak... and I'd been wanting to eat some for a while.
So long story short, my father died, the funeral's been held, and he has been buried. Now, we have around 10 days (5 days in Mexican bureaucracy time) to complete a bunch of paperwork related to his death, and his will, before my sisters go back to Tennessee, and mom moves back into the old family home.
Yeah.
I appreciate the thoughts and prayers. Really. I'm just not very good at... saying so.
We spent most of the weekend mourning, holding on. The El Cajon coroner wouldn't work on weekends, so we had to wait until Monday for the local funeral home to contact us; we set everything up on... Tuesday, I think. My sisters borrowed close to $5000 so we could pay for the funeral (they didn't want to take a check from people who were from another state, or a credit card.) Once we paid up, all we had to do was... well, wait until Thursday.
So we did.
The wake was held from 6 PM to 9 PM at the Helms Brothers Funeral Parlor in Calexico, California (my sorta hometown). It went... well... fine, I guess. It was kinda strange seeing my father in that coffin, but at least he looked better than he had for a long time. We arrived at 5:30 and spent a half hour with him, alone. After that people started trickling in. I saw a lot of people who I knew - and a lot that I didn't. Relatives from way up north came, including my father's younger brother, and some relatives from two towns over. Luckily, nobody really got hurt or fainted or anything. I was concerned because a lot of the people who were attending are, well, pretty old.
The funeral home guy shooed us out at 9 PM. He seriously shooed us out. I almost expected him to get a brook to get rid of all the loud Mexicans in the building. XD
The funeral was on Friday morning, and I was one of the pallbearers. I got to church at 8:30 or so and waited for the rest of my family to arrive (they all stayed at mom's Calexico apartment, while I went back home). The mass didn't take long, about 40 minutes. I was just ticked off that:
A) The priest didn't even get my father's name right;
B) They made a big deal out of some prayer that someone was supposed to say, and the priest didn't even let us do that
C) The guy took his sweet time arriving for the funeral, and the actual burial.
All the proceedings were finished by 10:30 AM. After that, my sister's godfather invited pretty much everyone to his house to eat... grilled steak. Yes, I realize that's weird. But it was spur of the moment, so the majority of people went there. We were... well, still sad, but being around a ton of people helped much. And the food was good. Dad loved making grilled steak... and I'd been wanting to eat some for a while.
So long story short, my father died, the funeral's been held, and he has been buried. Now, we have around 10 days (5 days in Mexican bureaucracy time) to complete a bunch of paperwork related to his death, and his will, before my sisters go back to Tennessee, and mom moves back into the old family home.
Yeah.
I appreciate the thoughts and prayers. Really. I'm just not very good at... saying so.