Yet another installment for your approval...or not!!!
Thanks to everyone for reading my drivel... You guys are the best.
The funeral followed the long night before. The arrangements for the use of the St. James Lutheran Church for the service, where Harry was a member, were set for 10 AM. Bob had made sure that Jillian was there well before the arrival of the coffin. She wore a black business suit, with dark gray pinstripes and carried a small black leather clutch that she bought the day before at the leather shop across the street from the hotel. She looked every bit the grieving daughter. Bob and Jillian sat in the front pew in the center of the sanctuary.
She had finally let her emotions come to the surface. She had cried most of the night. Not a sobbing kind of cry. More like a remembering kind of cry. She spent the night thinking about moving here when she was 8, her dad telling her that this was where he wanted to be…forever.
She thought about all the things that she had seen and all the people that she had been exposed to and the opportunities that had been made available to her simply because she was Harry Barton’s daughter. How hard she had worked to make her own name in the world of academia and how her claim to fame had always been her intelligence, and her dad.
She had left this place to attend college away from home for a couple of reasons. One, she didn’t want to have things handed to her because of her father. Second, she had had enough exposure to the faculty of Nesbitt to know that there was not a great astrophysics department here. It was good, but not great. Dr. Jerry Alspaugh had turned her on to Astronomy and the sciences of the cosmos when she was about 11.
Her dad has always told her about the stars and where they were and what they were since she could remember. She was captivated when Dr. Alspaugh could tell her WHY they were and where they were going. She was always amazed at how he knew the things that he knew. She fell in love. Astrophysics was her lover and her friend. There were few things that she had experienced in her life that excited her as much as the power and mystery of the Universe. There was no part of a hurricane or tornado or volcano that intrigued her. They were nothing compared to the raw power of stars being born, of entire galaxies moving at unbelievable speed, and yet appearing for all intents and purposes to be standing dead still in the sky. What makes this possible is what motivates her. She loved to discover. She loved to share her information with her students. The “ooohs and aaahhhs” from the classroom when she would impart a tidbit of information to the class during a lights out slide show kept the fires burning for her. This drove her to do more, work harder, discover more, learn more. She was her father’s daughter, there was no doubt of that. Her thoughts were interrupted by a whisper in her ear.
“Jill, when do you plan to return to Arizona?”
“Probably tomorrow or the day after. I haven’t really made any flight plans or anything… You got me here, and going back hadn’t really occurred to me, yet.”
“Good. There are a few things that we need to take care of in the next couple of days. I would rather have you here than try to resolve it with phone calls, faxes and emails. Having you here will make it much easier,” he said.
She nodded in agreement and he sat up in his seat. His thoughts were not exactly on the funeral at the moment. He was, in his minds eye, seeing the conference room in his office. The 12 foot conference table virtually covered with stacks of paperwork that constituted the “few things we have to take care of” before she returned to Southwestern. He wondered if she would ever return to Southwestern. The start of the music for the service jolted him out of his visual distraction and refocused him on his current surroundings.
The funeral was beautiful. Harry would have loved it. There were friends, coworkers, colleagues, neighbors, bankers, lawyers, University presidents from all over the country and grocers crowded into this huge church, meant to seat 1200 faithful.
There was no doubt that Jillian was pleased with the service. She told Bob at least twice in the ride to the cemetery what a beautiful funeral it had been.
As they arrived at the cemetery, the motorcade made the long loop around the outside of the grounds. The place where Harry would be laid to rest was a beautiful spot, on the crest of a small rise in elevation, between two large oak trees. There was a large green and white tent covering the area. The ground around the tent was covered with green artificial turf and in the center was the frame that would be used to lower the coffin into the ground. A small lectern sat on the right side of the gravesite. There were a couple of hundred chairs facing the tent, sunlight glinting off the backs and the seats as they approached. The sun was shining, the air was clear and a nice breeze was blowing ever so slightly rustling the leaves of the towering oaks.
Bob exited the car and extended his hand for Jillian to help her step out. As she did, she looked back to see the line of cars behind them. There was a line of cars as far as she could see through the cemetery. She looked at Bob and said, “There are a lot of people that will miss him, aren’t there?”
“Yes, Jillian there are. The thing about it is, they really will miss him. He was one of a kind. The vast majority of the people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be. That says a lot about your dad.”
The coffin was born to the gravesite by members of Harry’s “Differential Equations” class. That was the class that he was teaching when he collapsed. Three of the pallbearers were the first three to reach him. The other three were students that felt the need to volunteer for this honorable duty.
The coffin was laid on the frame atop the freshly opened earth. Jillian sat and watched, tears silently sliding down her cheeks. The Pastor prayed, the crowd watched and the ceremony went through its traditional paces. It was ended almost as quickly as it had begun. The entire crowd sang “Amazing Grace”. As they prepared to leave the graveside, Jillian walked to the side of the coffin and laid her left hand on top of the polished wood and whispered a final farewell to her father. She turned and took Bob’s elbow and they slowly returned to the car. She looked back to the site of Harry’s burial for a long moment before the driver started moving forward. She turned her head as the care rounded the first curve in the driveway to maintain sight of the grave. As it faded from view, she turned to Bob, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for everything,” she said. “I could not have gotten through all this without your help.”
Bob smiled and sat back in the seat, sliding his hand over hers and patting it without saying a word.
The car turned into the driveway back at Meiler-Masters. The ride was shorter coming back that it had been going to the cemetery. Bob once again helped Jillian exit the car and as they walked to his car, he suggested that they have lunch at a small restaurant that he enjoyed on the edge of town. Jillian agreed and Bob pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
“James. Bob Milton. I need a table for two for lunch. We will be there in 10 minutes,” he paused for a few seconds, “Excellent, see you soon.”
“All set,” he said as he pulled the car onto the street. “You are going to like this place. It is a really quiet place, and the food is superb.”
Jillian was quiet during the ride to the restaurant, reflective perhaps, understandably down. But she was looking forward to getting something to eat. She had missed breakfast and it was going on 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
As they sat down at their table, Bob handed James a tip. The bill was folded, but it appeared that it was larger than a five. Jillian smiled as Bob pulled out her chair and she sat facing a large window that looked out over a pine-encircled lake at the bottom of the hill that held “The Thorn and Thistle Tavern”.
Jillian ordered a glass of Chardonnay. Bob didn’t order, he didn’t have to. James brought him a double scotch and water with Jill’s glass of wine.
The two most important people in the world to Harry were both sitting together in this little lakeside restaurant. They were all that was left of Harry’s world…Almost.
“Jillian, the reason that I need you to stay on a few more days, is that there is a fair amount of paperwork that we need to finish before you go back to protect your interest in the disposition of Harry’s estate. You know that you are all Harry had, as far as family, and everything that was his is now yours. We drew up a will several years ago and there are some donations that are to be made in his memory to Nesbitt and a couple of mathematics scholarships that he wanted to make sure go something, but the rest is yours to do with as you please.” He continued, “I think that if we can get started first thing in the morning, we may be able to get it all done by tomorrow afternoon, including the trips to the bank to get the accounts transferred to your name. There are a couple of real estate issues that we need to take care of as well, but those should be easy. Those will require signatures and not much else as far as you are concerned.”
Jillian nodded in agreement. She wondered to herself, what could possibly take all day to do if Daddy had already designated what would go where? How long could it take to sign some papers? “Oh well,” she thought, “tomorrow will tell the story, I guess.”
The lunch was perfect. The opportunity to sit and look over the lake was very relaxing, considering the stresses of the last several days. She was ready to sleep. Everything that she had worried about and been thinking about since Bob had called her at home, was over. She could put all that behind her now and concentrate on taking care of business for one more day. Maybe then things would return to more or less normal. She could spend a couple of days getting back to Arizona and getting back to teaching her classes.
She wanted things to settle down.
She wanted to go home and just sit in her great big chair and listen to music again.
The funeral followed the long night before. The arrangements for the use of the St. James Lutheran Church for the service, where Harry was a member, were set for 10 AM. Bob had made sure that Jillian was there well before the arrival of the coffin. She wore a black business suit, with dark gray pinstripes and carried a small black leather clutch that she bought the day before at the leather shop across the street from the hotel. She looked every bit the grieving daughter. Bob and Jillian sat in the front pew in the center of the sanctuary.
She had finally let her emotions come to the surface. She had cried most of the night. Not a sobbing kind of cry. More like a remembering kind of cry. She spent the night thinking about moving here when she was 8, her dad telling her that this was where he wanted to be…forever.
She thought about all the things that she had seen and all the people that she had been exposed to and the opportunities that had been made available to her simply because she was Harry Barton’s daughter. How hard she had worked to make her own name in the world of academia and how her claim to fame had always been her intelligence, and her dad.
She had left this place to attend college away from home for a couple of reasons. One, she didn’t want to have things handed to her because of her father. Second, she had had enough exposure to the faculty of Nesbitt to know that there was not a great astrophysics department here. It was good, but not great. Dr. Jerry Alspaugh had turned her on to Astronomy and the sciences of the cosmos when she was about 11.
Her dad has always told her about the stars and where they were and what they were since she could remember. She was captivated when Dr. Alspaugh could tell her WHY they were and where they were going. She was always amazed at how he knew the things that he knew. She fell in love. Astrophysics was her lover and her friend. There were few things that she had experienced in her life that excited her as much as the power and mystery of the Universe. There was no part of a hurricane or tornado or volcano that intrigued her. They were nothing compared to the raw power of stars being born, of entire galaxies moving at unbelievable speed, and yet appearing for all intents and purposes to be standing dead still in the sky. What makes this possible is what motivates her. She loved to discover. She loved to share her information with her students. The “ooohs and aaahhhs” from the classroom when she would impart a tidbit of information to the class during a lights out slide show kept the fires burning for her. This drove her to do more, work harder, discover more, learn more. She was her father’s daughter, there was no doubt of that. Her thoughts were interrupted by a whisper in her ear.
“Jill, when do you plan to return to Arizona?”
“Probably tomorrow or the day after. I haven’t really made any flight plans or anything… You got me here, and going back hadn’t really occurred to me, yet.”
“Good. There are a few things that we need to take care of in the next couple of days. I would rather have you here than try to resolve it with phone calls, faxes and emails. Having you here will make it much easier,” he said.
She nodded in agreement and he sat up in his seat. His thoughts were not exactly on the funeral at the moment. He was, in his minds eye, seeing the conference room in his office. The 12 foot conference table virtually covered with stacks of paperwork that constituted the “few things we have to take care of” before she returned to Southwestern. He wondered if she would ever return to Southwestern. The start of the music for the service jolted him out of his visual distraction and refocused him on his current surroundings.
The funeral was beautiful. Harry would have loved it. There were friends, coworkers, colleagues, neighbors, bankers, lawyers, University presidents from all over the country and grocers crowded into this huge church, meant to seat 1200 faithful.
There was no doubt that Jillian was pleased with the service. She told Bob at least twice in the ride to the cemetery what a beautiful funeral it had been.
As they arrived at the cemetery, the motorcade made the long loop around the outside of the grounds. The place where Harry would be laid to rest was a beautiful spot, on the crest of a small rise in elevation, between two large oak trees. There was a large green and white tent covering the area. The ground around the tent was covered with green artificial turf and in the center was the frame that would be used to lower the coffin into the ground. A small lectern sat on the right side of the gravesite. There were a couple of hundred chairs facing the tent, sunlight glinting off the backs and the seats as they approached. The sun was shining, the air was clear and a nice breeze was blowing ever so slightly rustling the leaves of the towering oaks.
Bob exited the car and extended his hand for Jillian to help her step out. As she did, she looked back to see the line of cars behind them. There was a line of cars as far as she could see through the cemetery. She looked at Bob and said, “There are a lot of people that will miss him, aren’t there?”
“Yes, Jillian there are. The thing about it is, they really will miss him. He was one of a kind. The vast majority of the people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be. That says a lot about your dad.”
The coffin was born to the gravesite by members of Harry’s “Differential Equations” class. That was the class that he was teaching when he collapsed. Three of the pallbearers were the first three to reach him. The other three were students that felt the need to volunteer for this honorable duty.
The coffin was laid on the frame atop the freshly opened earth. Jillian sat and watched, tears silently sliding down her cheeks. The Pastor prayed, the crowd watched and the ceremony went through its traditional paces. It was ended almost as quickly as it had begun. The entire crowd sang “Amazing Grace”. As they prepared to leave the graveside, Jillian walked to the side of the coffin and laid her left hand on top of the polished wood and whispered a final farewell to her father. She turned and took Bob’s elbow and they slowly returned to the car. She looked back to the site of Harry’s burial for a long moment before the driver started moving forward. She turned her head as the care rounded the first curve in the driveway to maintain sight of the grave. As it faded from view, she turned to Bob, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for everything,” she said. “I could not have gotten through all this without your help.”
Bob smiled and sat back in the seat, sliding his hand over hers and patting it without saying a word.
The car turned into the driveway back at Meiler-Masters. The ride was shorter coming back that it had been going to the cemetery. Bob once again helped Jillian exit the car and as they walked to his car, he suggested that they have lunch at a small restaurant that he enjoyed on the edge of town. Jillian agreed and Bob pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
“James. Bob Milton. I need a table for two for lunch. We will be there in 10 minutes,” he paused for a few seconds, “Excellent, see you soon.”
“All set,” he said as he pulled the car onto the street. “You are going to like this place. It is a really quiet place, and the food is superb.”
Jillian was quiet during the ride to the restaurant, reflective perhaps, understandably down. But she was looking forward to getting something to eat. She had missed breakfast and it was going on 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
As they sat down at their table, Bob handed James a tip. The bill was folded, but it appeared that it was larger than a five. Jillian smiled as Bob pulled out her chair and she sat facing a large window that looked out over a pine-encircled lake at the bottom of the hill that held “The Thorn and Thistle Tavern”.
Jillian ordered a glass of Chardonnay. Bob didn’t order, he didn’t have to. James brought him a double scotch and water with Jill’s glass of wine.
The two most important people in the world to Harry were both sitting together in this little lakeside restaurant. They were all that was left of Harry’s world…Almost.
“Jillian, the reason that I need you to stay on a few more days, is that there is a fair amount of paperwork that we need to finish before you go back to protect your interest in the disposition of Harry’s estate. You know that you are all Harry had, as far as family, and everything that was his is now yours. We drew up a will several years ago and there are some donations that are to be made in his memory to Nesbitt and a couple of mathematics scholarships that he wanted to make sure go something, but the rest is yours to do with as you please.” He continued, “I think that if we can get started first thing in the morning, we may be able to get it all done by tomorrow afternoon, including the trips to the bank to get the accounts transferred to your name. There are a couple of real estate issues that we need to take care of as well, but those should be easy. Those will require signatures and not much else as far as you are concerned.”
Jillian nodded in agreement. She wondered to herself, what could possibly take all day to do if Daddy had already designated what would go where? How long could it take to sign some papers? “Oh well,” she thought, “tomorrow will tell the story, I guess.”
The lunch was perfect. The opportunity to sit and look over the lake was very relaxing, considering the stresses of the last several days. She was ready to sleep. Everything that she had worried about and been thinking about since Bob had called her at home, was over. She could put all that behind her now and concentrate on taking care of business for one more day. Maybe then things would return to more or less normal. She could spend a couple of days getting back to Arizona and getting back to teaching her classes.
She wanted things to settle down.
She wanted to go home and just sit in her great big chair and listen to music again.