When I hugged Alec goodbye the other day, I commented that he'd be as tall as I am when I saw him next. He said, "Oh, no. We'll be back before that." "Yeah," added Eric, who was standing nearby. "We have to come back for Aunt Angie's funeral," he finished up, with a grin of excitement at the prospect of returning soon. I just about screamed that I couldn't believe what I had just heard! Of course, they are so young (8 and 10) that they really have no idea what they're talking about and how dreadful it will be for all of us when Angie does pass away. Well, I'm glad at least that they would be happy to come back as that shows that they have a good time here.
I remember Uncle Johnny's funeral as the first one I went to. I never knew who he was till he died. I remember wondering who that old man in the casket was and how it could be possible that I'd never known him if he was related to us. It never occurred to me that he was Jo Beisler's father or Aunt Gin's husband. I remember the hat he had over his hands. They say they put a deck of cards under there!
When I hugged Alec goodbye the other day, I commented that he'd be as tall as I am when I saw him next. He said, "Oh, no. We'll be back before that." "Yeah," added Eric, who was standing nearby. "We have to come back for Aunt Angie's funeral," he finished up, with a grin of excitement at the prospect of returning soon. I just about screamed that I couldn't believe what I had just heard! Of course, they are so young (8 and 10) that they really have no idea what they're talking about and how dreadful it will be for all of us when Angie does pass away. Well, I'm glad at least that they would be happy to come back as that shows that they have a good time here.
I remember Uncle Johnny's funeral as the first one I went to. I never knew who he was till he died. I remember wondering who that old man in the casket was and how it could be possible that I'd never known him if he was related to us. It never occurred to me that he was Joe Beisler's father or Aunt Gin's husband. I remember the hat he had over his hands. They say they put a deck of cards under there!
Growing up caticorner to the funeral home, it was a strange event when we actually went in there. Well, other than to collect the paper bill and then we always used the office door. I think the next time I went in the front door was when Grandma Beisler died. I was nine years old. I remember not fully comprehending what death meant. What does that mean? As if I comprehend it now that I'm older! I mean that I didn't fully understand all the implications or even understand it enough to have seen it coming. I guess I had thought Grandma would live for ever. She just was and then suddenly she wasn't. I don't remember much about that funeral home visit or the funeral or anything. Odd. Nor with Uncle Preacher. Surely not because it wasn't important to me, but, then, I don't remember being overcome with grief either. Sometimes I think I feel a lot more grief about such things now. I know this must be what it's like for Alec and Eric with Eddie. And even with Gina, their own mother. With the one, they didn't think much about his existence till he died and with they other, they think don't think much about her existence because they think she'll live forever. And with Angie...it would be just an excuse to get together and have a party. Like it was with Grandma Klein's funeral.
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Early in dad's career as a photographer (not a long lived career), he would take funeral photos of folks in their caskets. I never thought this was macabre as I understood that many of these families had few if any photos of their elders.
We came to L'ville for John's aunt/guardian's funeral. She died while at work of a heart attack. I visited Uncle Preacher (Ray) while he was in the hospital. It had never really sunk into my heart that he was so ill, was dying. There was a huge beast on his chest, his breathing was so labored- lung cancer. He smiled, clasped my hands, seemed so happy that I had visited. Selfish me. It was not a sense of duty that had brought me, or of anticipation of his death. I desperately needed to get away from Mildred's viewing. The day she was buried, Uncle Preacher died! We "young" ones had had so little death in our family. I had to think about it a lot. Uncle P. had been so close to us Kleins, had been very dear to me. He was so demontratively loving, unlike our own dad.
Angie and Preacher truly loved each other. In P's last years, his drinking was distasteful (for Angie, it seemed) tho he was a 'sleepy' drunk. Surely it was pain managment. He had sciatic pain and then who knows how long the cancer took to develop fully. In those days pain managment was aspirin. In the early 70's, cancer was mysterious and always ment death.
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