Your weekend > Mine. (long)

So I've not been around much the last few days. I spent the last few days feeling extremely sad and uncomfortable.

We made the 5 hour drive through a blizzard last Friday to Buffalo for the memorial services for my friend's father who had the plane land on him two weeks ago. My brother in law has been up there since the event with his girlfriend (it was her father)

Friday night after the drive we go over to the house where the family has been staying. Talk about awkward. What exactly do you say to a woman and her daughters who just lost their father/husband to an airplane? 

"Hey, what's kickin?" doesn't really cut it, and "I'm sorry" is right about at the same level for such an instance. Luckily, there were several other family members/friends there so we were all awkward together.
We did get to hear the story from the women who survived the crash from their own mouths....really sort of eerie.

Saturday morning we tripped over to the local middle school for the public memorial service. My mother in law liked to mention that we were 'with the family' - so we get ushered into a waiting room with the immediate family again. My wife, her youngest brother and I picked a nice quiet spot in a corner to hang out  until we were again ushered around into the auditorium for the service. Not being 'family' exactly, I felt sort of strange. After that, they organized a trip to the crash site, which the wife and I passed on. I've seen burned out houses before, but this one had 50 people perish in it....it seemed too much like the ultimate in rubbernecking if you asked me....eww.

Sunday was the wake, which we were going to pass on, but we but dragooned into going to that and standing in a serpentine receiving line which was oddly reminiscent of the wait for an amusement park ride. Now we get to shake hands and hug various family members, of whom I am friends with one.....the others...we were forced into the uncomfortable "I'm sorry" and "How are you doing" while they desperately waited for more familiar people to come down the line.

That sucked.

Today was the funeral and internment itself- the funeral wasn't that bad, I've done those before. But the internment was done in the negative degree weather that only Buffalo can dish out. Aside from the cold, the honor guard folding the flag and presenting it to my friends mother (the deceased was a Vet) was rather emotional.

Then we drive 5 hours back.

It snowed the ENTIRE time we were there and on the road.

I'm completely drained, physically from the drive, and emotionally from the itinerary. On the upswing- work tomorrow at the job that's trying to get rid of me.

Woo hoo!

/wine of epic proportions.

Wow, that sounds like a bummer of a time. Nice to pay your respects, but seems like you were a bit out of place at times.

The whole trip to the site strikes me as really odd though....

GI JOES SON wrote: choop- usually they drive the hearse in front of the perons house before going to the cemetery, usually the place they grew up or lived for most of their life. in this case, its just awkward though, i agree...

That's ALMOST funny....but not quite.

GI JOES SON wrote: choop- usually they drive the hearse in front of the perons house before going to the cemetery, usually the place they grew up or lived for most of their life. in this case, its just awkward though, i agree...

That is odd. I have never seen a funeral procession that went took any sort of indirect trip from the church or funeral home to the cemetery.

Sorry about your weekend, Reb. You definitely had a rough few days.

I have just never heard of this tradition. My grandfather died just last month, and the funeral procession didn't do that.

We drove by the house for my Mother, we didn't do that with my Father.  out front of the house is my Mother's garden, she always loved her gardening.  Sorry to hear that Reb.

Awful.  I absolutely cannot stand funerals.  I almost always end up bawling in a corner.  I suck at handling death.

I wonder if funerals, veiwings etc. aren't going to be a lost practice. I absolutely dislike going to funerals and refuse to attend veiwings as I think they are quite macabre. My wife and I have made it crystal clear that we don't want such things when we die.

Sorry about the uncomfortable weekend. Unfortunately, I will probably be doing the same due to one of my wife's friends dad dying yesterday. I get to bag out of it though since someone needs to watch the kids.

Edited by oldpbnoob - 24 February 2009 at 11:55am