The funeral was like none other that I've ever been too, though I don't make it a habit of going to many funerals. It was a 90o+ day and the funeral home staff had set up a tent to provide shade over the burial plot and casket, giving a little room for family to stand. I opted to stand outside of the tent, though under some shade of a larger tree not so nearby, and was positioned, oddly enough next my mother's own grave.
I won't bore you with the small-town nuances of chit-chatting with folks known from my days of waiting tables and flipping burgers at my family's restaurant, and will only describe a few of the more notable things here. Most of everyone had arrived at the cemetery that was going to be there, with all of my family (but me) standing near or under the tent. Thankfully, I had Chuck at my side to hold my hand and witness just how crazy the folks I lived with for so many years really are. My uncle had a brother, Duane, who was not able to join us on Saturday for the official viewing b/c he lives in Colorado Springs. So, about 30-minutes was allowed for a graveside viewing before the burial service began. Towards the end of the viewing session, the funeral director requested that any last respects be paid and the ceremony will begin shortly. At which point, Duane stepped forward, whipped out his camera, and started taking photos of my uncle in the casket. This caused my eldest cousin, Evelyn, to burst out into an indecipherable shriek and start sobbing. My aunt said something to her, but since I was just out of earshot, I didn't know at the time what was said, but later found out that she was trying to reassure her daughter that it was okay for him to do that. Nonetheless, Evelyn rushed out from under the tent to another part of the cemetery (all the while crying and saying, "Who does that?") and, after a short period of consolation from her brother, was coaxed back to her place at the graveside. Does it matter if I mention here that Evelyn is about 39-years-old?
Okay, so now, I rarely will ever say this, but I happen to agree with her on the general point she was trying to make. "Who does that?" I saw Duane step forward and take the photos, and that conjured up images of the death photos that popular in the late-1800s. On the one hand, since the death happened so unexpectedly, Duane was not able to scrape together the money needed to fly his whole family to Michigan, and opted to come alone; so, from my aunt's point of view, it was perfectly reasonable to snap some photos. But why? I mean really, what does that add? I can just see the man come home to his wife and kids and say, "Yeah, the service was nice; the weather was hot; and, hey, can you add these photos to the scrapbook?" If I missed a funeral that I just couldn't get to, I don't think photographs will do justice to not being there in person. At which point, why not just talk about it?!? So, as you ponder what you just read, please keep in mind that I'm only related to Duane through marriage and have yet to inherit Evelyn's penchant for high drama.
Once we got over all of that, we were ready for the ceremony to begin. Now, please don't get me wrong: I'm not normally in the habit of talking bad about preachers, but the poor guy who was asked to conduct the religious ceremony should have left the job to someone who actually knew my uncle, like my sister-in-law's father (who isn't a practicing preacher, though is supposedly ordained as one). I don't recall which of the small White Cloud area churches he presides over, but in all fairness, he made it a point to remark at least 3 different times how he "knows he met Ray (my uncle), but doesn't recall him". Each time he said that, I just looked up at Chuck and gave him a pleading, "Make it stop" look. Really folks, who does that?!? Didn't this guy ever learn there's a difference between honesty and being a little too honest? To add salt to the wound, he basically recited the press release from the funeral home to talk about who my uncle was and what his interests were. Even Sylvain noticed that he wasn't saying anything really of substance and that he was borderline insulting.
And, lastly, before I begin, I must confess that I've never been to a military funeral before, so am unsure what to expect. As a retired Naval officer with 23-years under his belt, my uncle was to have a "military funeral", so I thought it was great to have the motorcycle brigade (vets in leather vests with many patches, standing off to the side holding the American and the POW flags) as well as the three Navy servicemen present to do a flag ceremony with taps (though there was some debate between Chuck and Sylvain over whether the trumpet playing was a recording; I've convinced myself that it's the real deal). However, my aunt was not at all happy with that part of the ceremony since she was expecting the whole gun salute and all. She was under the impression that the funeral director made all of the appropriate contacts, and had been reassured that the gunmen would be there today. But how does that work? Is it really that simple to put out a call and the "military funeral" squad gets called out? Obviously, these services are available for current servicemen, but do they really do that for all officers, retired and otherwise? So, while this wasn't really detrimental to my experience today (like I said, I thought that it all was quite nice), my aunt just couldn't seem to get over it. Besides, she was still lit up b/c she was told that for the local V.F.W. hall to be used for the luncheon, she'd have to pay a $50/hour fee (even though the food was all donated through friends), and though she was convinced that those services are usually free. So, her take on the whole deal is that my uncle gave 20+ years to his country, and a few nimrods let his family down in the end.
I didn't stay long at the luncheon to socialize. I've had my fill of family to last me to Christmas (seriously, I think that's the next time I'm slated to head that way). So, after getting into more comfortable clothes at my brother's house, Chuck, Sylvain, and I set out to explore a few places that we've driven past but never stopped at. First up was the Loda Lake Wildflower Preserve. This little gem of a park is tucked away down a couple of side roads off of M-37 north of White Cloud, but south of Brohman. We spent about an hour walking the trail, using the trail guide that was handily available in a nearby kiosk, and found the lake-side area to be pretty much free of mosquitoes (!). While we missed quite a few of the flowers, since it's late summer, we decided that we'll definitely have to visit next spring, and bring along a pair of binoculars to do some bird watching as well. If you decide to go for yourselves, be sure to take a few singles with you since there is a $3 fee for parking and that's payable through an unmanned paystation.
Our next stop was at a yarn store in Newaygo called "The New Ewe". It was a cute little shop that had fabric in the front half of the store and yarn in the rear half. I've been on a homespun and unique yarn kick, so didn't find much in the way of that with shelves loaded with the standard sock yarns, Encore, some Dale, Cacade, and Tahki. So, I opted for a pattern that contained directions for three different sets of lacy scarves and hats by Plymouth. I'm getting a little bored with the "Feather and Fan" pattern that I had so brashly decided to do all 3 of the Christmas Interlacements shawls out of that I'm thinking that I need to opt for something different for the other two shawls. I like the look of the "Icarus shawl" (scroll further towards the bottom of the link for a photo), but need to let that stew a little yet.
As promised, here's a photo of my progress on the first (and only?) "Feather and Fan" shawl. I'm about two weeks in and have about 24" completed and the ball hardly has a dent in it. Then again, how long of a shawl in this pattern will 1,400 yds of yarn make? I don't think I'll find out and think that I'm about a third of the way through. Does 6' sound too long to anyone?
Well, there you have it. An action-packed day. Hopefully, the rest of the week will be fairly boring in contrast. I have two conference calls (one each Wednesday and Thursday), as well as I'm taking Friday off to attend the Lansing area's "Back to School Shop Hop". Let's see what the rest of the week has in store...
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