John
It's been nearly a month since my uncle died, and over a week since my parents returned from his funeral. It's probably time to write it up.
My parents left a week ago Wednesday at 6:37 AM. I remember the time because I specifically looked at the clock when I made it in the house and it actually said 6:38 AM, but I watched them pull out of the driveway and a little bit down the street, so I figured it counted as a minute. They'd meant to leave at 6 or 6:15; so much for that. And, since they were picking up my aunt, who was staying at her daughter's, plus her two oldest granddaughters, well, my dad said he'd call my cousin when they were leaving. I ended up having to make the phone call because my father inputted too many numbers into his phone. Nice. I'd already gotten up earlier than normal--oh, right, because they printed out their flight info before they left, except the printer ran out of ink and started beeping, and I was the closest one to the printer so I fixed it; they were downstairs. They were flying free as my uncle's son is a pilot who arranged for bereavement flights for the ten out-of-area family members who attended. I'd find out later that when they got to the counter at Midway--where they'd never flown out of--the person who helped them got them their boarding passes, and they went all the way to the end of the whole process, only to finally open up their stuff and find it read "This is not a boarding pass" on it. They had to go all the way back to the beginning, including going through security again. And this is why we open up our stuff and read it before moving on. This is not my father's strong suit and frankly I'm not that surprised it happened. But oh well.
They did get to LAX okay, though dad was surprised that they didn't fly over the ocean on arrival; his flights have always done this in the past. Yes, but he's also never flown Southwest. Another live and learn moment. My aunt and her husband were there waiting to take them to their house in the near suburbs. Everything overall went well with the home stay, and I'm sure my aunt loved having the company. The next day, they were joined by another one of my cousins and her daughter, who live upstate in California, so it was a full house over there for a few days.
The wake took place about an hour east of L.A.; I was all confused as to where this was until I looked at Google Maps and went, hello, dummy, this is right where your uncle lived for many years. The wake was in the town just south of his longtime hometown and a couple suburbs west of where he'd been living for a while. The funeral, however, was another hour and a half east of everything, in the middle of nowhere, so that part wasn't as fun. Mom has been buying postcards from the places she visits and the first one she showed me was of an L.A. freeway, saying, this is what I saw on my trip. Well, at least they didn't have to drive; my aunt's husband drove them everywhere. This was actually a bit of an issue, because he didn't really get along with my uncle, so he didn't really want to be there and he didn't want to stay for long, so, for example, when a friend hosted a sort of after-party after the funeral, I want to say, the group only made a brief appearance before leaving to go back home. You kind of wanted to go, uh, would you mind sucking it up for a few hours? The family is hardly together. I'm not sure why my aunt didn't just drive and leave her husband at home, but he was driving a large vehicle and perhaps she wasn't comfortable with it. I don't know. But looking back, it's too bad my dad didn't just rent a car.
Anyway, it ended up being nice overall. I don't think my parents' group got to spend that much time with my uncle's kids, two of whom we haven't seen in 25 years, but before the ceremony at the cemetery they did take a number of group pictures with every available family member in it--23 people--and that was really nice to see. Even though I've only met one of those cousins in adulthood and I've never met any of their kids, I could still pick them out because I've at least heard of them. Dad said they were all nice, and my uncle's younger son acted like he'd known my father all his life. That part of the family was sort of estranged from the rest of us, in part owing to the physical distance, but now because of Facebook they've decided to connect with each other so we can all stay in touch. I thought that was pretty cool--even the oldest of my uncle's grandkids added my mom, I believe.
I'm still a smidge sad that I didn't go, but I had a few reasons, one of which is that it's the busy season at work. I worked late every day they were gone, including staying three hours late one day. So, I'm glad I didn't leave work in the lurch. I also know that my one cousin, the one whose daughters went, had also wanted to go but couldn't, so at least we had the knowledge that not everyone was there. At least dad got pictures of most of the family members; the only two he didn't get were the daughter of the aunt they stayed with and her new daughter, who turned two months old the day they arrived in CA. They did visit on the night they arrived, but ended up not attending any of the services and therefore dad didn't get any pictures of them. That was a disappointment, since that's the second baby who shares her birthday with my dad and I'd hoped they'd get a picture together, but what are you going to do?
My parents returned home at 9:57 PM last Saturday; they could have been home sooner, but when they returned my aunt and her granddaughters to my cousin's house, they proceeded to talk for a half-hour. This sounds like every time I've tried to leave a party at her house, so it wasn't a big surprise. But everyone got home safely and overall had a good time, and the girls got to go to California for the first time ever and see the ocean, so that made a sad time memorable for them.
My parents left a week ago Wednesday at 6:37 AM. I remember the time because I specifically looked at the clock when I made it in the house and it actually said 6:38 AM, but I watched them pull out of the driveway and a little bit down the street, so I figured it counted as a minute. They'd meant to leave at 6 or 6:15; so much for that. And, since they were picking up my aunt, who was staying at her daughter's, plus her two oldest granddaughters, well, my dad said he'd call my cousin when they were leaving. I ended up having to make the phone call because my father inputted too many numbers into his phone. Nice. I'd already gotten up earlier than normal--oh, right, because they printed out their flight info before they left, except the printer ran out of ink and started beeping, and I was the closest one to the printer so I fixed it; they were downstairs. They were flying free as my uncle's son is a pilot who arranged for bereavement flights for the ten out-of-area family members who attended. I'd find out later that when they got to the counter at Midway--where they'd never flown out of--the person who helped them got them their boarding passes, and they went all the way to the end of the whole process, only to finally open up their stuff and find it read "This is not a boarding pass" on it. They had to go all the way back to the beginning, including going through security again. And this is why we open up our stuff and read it before moving on. This is not my father's strong suit and frankly I'm not that surprised it happened. But oh well.
They did get to LAX okay, though dad was surprised that they didn't fly over the ocean on arrival; his flights have always done this in the past. Yes, but he's also never flown Southwest. Another live and learn moment. My aunt and her husband were there waiting to take them to their house in the near suburbs. Everything overall went well with the home stay, and I'm sure my aunt loved having the company. The next day, they were joined by another one of my cousins and her daughter, who live upstate in California, so it was a full house over there for a few days.
The wake took place about an hour east of L.A.; I was all confused as to where this was until I looked at Google Maps and went, hello, dummy, this is right where your uncle lived for many years. The wake was in the town just south of his longtime hometown and a couple suburbs west of where he'd been living for a while. The funeral, however, was another hour and a half east of everything, in the middle of nowhere, so that part wasn't as fun. Mom has been buying postcards from the places she visits and the first one she showed me was of an L.A. freeway, saying, this is what I saw on my trip. Well, at least they didn't have to drive; my aunt's husband drove them everywhere. This was actually a bit of an issue, because he didn't really get along with my uncle, so he didn't really want to be there and he didn't want to stay for long, so, for example, when a friend hosted a sort of after-party after the funeral, I want to say, the group only made a brief appearance before leaving to go back home. You kind of wanted to go, uh, would you mind sucking it up for a few hours? The family is hardly together. I'm not sure why my aunt didn't just drive and leave her husband at home, but he was driving a large vehicle and perhaps she wasn't comfortable with it. I don't know. But looking back, it's too bad my dad didn't just rent a car.
Anyway, it ended up being nice overall. I don't think my parents' group got to spend that much time with my uncle's kids, two of whom we haven't seen in 25 years, but before the ceremony at the cemetery they did take a number of group pictures with every available family member in it--23 people--and that was really nice to see. Even though I've only met one of those cousins in adulthood and I've never met any of their kids, I could still pick them out because I've at least heard of them. Dad said they were all nice, and my uncle's younger son acted like he'd known my father all his life. That part of the family was sort of estranged from the rest of us, in part owing to the physical distance, but now because of Facebook they've decided to connect with each other so we can all stay in touch. I thought that was pretty cool--even the oldest of my uncle's grandkids added my mom, I believe.
I'm still a smidge sad that I didn't go, but I had a few reasons, one of which is that it's the busy season at work. I worked late every day they were gone, including staying three hours late one day. So, I'm glad I didn't leave work in the lurch. I also know that my one cousin, the one whose daughters went, had also wanted to go but couldn't, so at least we had the knowledge that not everyone was there. At least dad got pictures of most of the family members; the only two he didn't get were the daughter of the aunt they stayed with and her new daughter, who turned two months old the day they arrived in CA. They did visit on the night they arrived, but ended up not attending any of the services and therefore dad didn't get any pictures of them. That was a disappointment, since that's the second baby who shares her birthday with my dad and I'd hoped they'd get a picture together, but what are you going to do?
My parents returned home at 9:57 PM last Saturday; they could have been home sooner, but when they returned my aunt and her granddaughters to my cousin's house, they proceeded to talk for a half-hour. This sounds like every time I've tried to leave a party at her house, so it wasn't a big surprise. But everyone got home safely and overall had a good time, and the girls got to go to California for the first time ever and see the ocean, so that made a sad time memorable for them.