IT'S OVER

Everything is finally over for our sad weekend.  The viewing last night was very long.  Joe's family was OK except for a few people, but we just avoided them.  The two people he supposedly hurt were fine with him, said he made a mistake posting on facebook, but who doesn't and everything was cool.  Joe got to see his aunt and lots of his cousins which was very nice for him.  Most of the time I just sat there by myself.  The Marine League and the American Legion were there and each had a military ceremony for him.  Dad was a two-time recipient of the purple heart plus many other medals for his work in Viet Nam.  The ceremonies were very nice and very moving.

We were told last night to go directly to the church today instead of the funeral home, which we did.  Two of our closest friends from our church were there for us and we sat toward the back of the church with them.  We didn't know that the entire family had met at the funeral home, came in with the coffin and sat together at the front of the church.  Oh well.  We didn't want to sit with them anyway.  The service was very hard to sit through, but  we got through it.  Everyone was invited back to Joe's nephew's house, but we didn't go.  Instead we took our friends to lunch and then went home and took naps.

Dad is being cremated and the actual interment is happening on Tuesday.  Joe says we are not going to that.  Tuesday is also the day I have an appointment to see my surgeon for my second check-up and hopefully will get the OK to return to work.  He says that is more important and his dad would feel the same way.  He is right.  His dad was always looking out for me and was very concerned that I recover from this surgery.  He used to call me even from the hospital to see how I was feeling.

We are exhausted both physically and emotionally.  We thank you all for surrounding us with your prayers.  We couldn't have made it through otherwise.  We want this all to be over and to start living our lives again without a lot of turmoil.