Friday

This was the day I was dreading the most. Actually getting to see Mom, was something that kept me from getting much sleep Thursday night. Visitation was at 6pm, and the family viewing was set at 5pm. My Mother-in-law volunteered to watch the girls and bring them down later, so we dropped them off at around 4, and headed down to the church.

The church was nice, and had a message on their marquee about Mom and the service times. There was a HUGE arrangement of HUGE long stemmed roses on the greeting table. They were from her girlfriends from high school. Rhonda, the funeral directors wife/assistant, had put together a wonderful display of the pictures of Mom we had collected. Everything looked great.

It was time for the moment that I had been dreading for days. I walked into the sanctuary and prepared myself to see Mom. I turned the corner and stepped into the room. I was stopped in my tracks by the number of flower arrangements and plants that had been sent and on display (48 all together). Completely spanning the front of a very good sized church. An unbelievable variety of colors and types of flowers... exactly what Mom would have wanted.

I followed Dad up the aisle and choked back the tears the best I could as we got closer to Mom. She looked like she was sleeping. Rhonda had done a great job with her hair and make up. She had a slight pout to her face, as if she was about to cry herself. "Wake up, Mom." Dad said through his tears, and thats all it took to send me into all out crying. I stepped away from the casket, and read some of the tags on the flowers to calm myself down. Old friends from KC, family from MG, high school friends, and business contacts... I was, and still am, amazed at the number of people that Mom made an impact on. I settled down, and was able to stand next to Mom, and say good bye face to face. I adjusted her jewelery a bit, and stepped away to read the other half of the cards.

Just before 6pm, people started coming in to pay their respects to Mom. Neighbors from where Mom and Dad live, salesmen that do buisness with the restaurant, the Mayor (the freakin MAYOR!), past employees... friends, family, and many many others. I was especially touched by the people that came down from O'Reilly, literally for 10 minutes, and then headed back home. There was the Millers from KC, old family friends, who drove down just for the service, and were heading back afterwards. I know I have said it many times, but this kind of thing was just amazing to me. The family lined up next to the casket and greeted and met everyone that came to visit Mom. Some of my co-workers made their way through the line, and I was introducing them to my Dad. Larry Wiles walked up, and I said "Dad, this is my boss, Larry." With out missing a beat, Larry says " I am not his boss, I am his friend." The man truly has a heart of gold. That really meant a lot to me. And I will never call him "My Boss" again. After the line of people finished, Larry pulled me aside and apologized that the department didn't send any flowers, instead they all pitched in and bought me a bench, and a memorial stone for my backyard. I again was dumbfounded. Larry and Charlie, his boss and the Department head, unloaded a decorative concrete bench and memory stone, with a lovely saying engraved in it, into my backyard. " You and the girls can put flowers around it, and just have a place to sit and remember your Mom." AMAZING! I was very deeply moved by this gift.

Big Mike and his wife where there from KC. Mike is the oldest son of Mom and Dad's Best friends from KC, Bill and Heidi (both of whom have passed). The last time I saw Mike was his Dad's funeral. " We gotta stop meeting like this." he says, with a comforting smile.

At about 9pm everyone had come and gone, some came just to say how sorry they were for our loss, and others literally cried at the foot of the casket like it was their own mother. We said our good-byes to the family and my beautiful wife and I made our way home. One very hard part down.