DAY OF THE VIEWING (MONDAY, FEB 22)

I did not have a good sleep on Sunday night.  It's always tough to sleep in a strange bed.  But I was so tired I fell asleep right away.  Four hours later I woke up with the alarm on Joe's CPAP machine going off because the mask was leaking air.  Then I couldn't get back to sleep.  When I did fall asleep I woke up about an hour later.  I went to sleep again and again slept only an hour or so.  So I read for awhile and then got up around 7:00, took a shower and got dressed. I heard D.J. and Danielle in the kitchen eating but by the time I got there, they were gone.  Joe got up then and we decided to go to IHOP for breakfast.  We left a note telling them where we were and what we were doing then hopped in the car and took off.

We had rented a Subaru and let me tell you that car was a dream to drive.  We also rented a GPS and it was a life saver on not getting lost.  It told us that the nearest IHOP was 15 miles away.  I said, "15 miles!" and Joe said that's the way it is down there.  There are no corner stores or walk down the block to a restaurant.  If you don't have a car or don't drive, you are sunk.

Here is the front of D.J.'s house.  His pride and joy Jeep is out front.  I'm glad he didn't move it because I used it as a landmark the whole time we were there.

He has a lot of ground around his house.

 It wasn't hard to find the IHOP.  And driving around there is really easy.  Even in rush hour it's not crowded like it is here.

We got seated right away.  Our waitress was so nice and attentive.

I had chicken and waffles with blueberry syrup.  It was wonderful.

Joe had the breakfast sampler and coffee.

Lots of coffee.

 The food was really good and we were full by the time we left.

We then went next door to Walmart.  We had brought light weight and in between clothes thinking it would be warm down there.  It wasn't.  So we were freezing.  I bought a very pretty long gray sweater that I ended up almost living in while I was there.  It was so warm.  I also got some sweat pants and a hooded pullover sweater.  Joe got a camo jacket and some shirts.  We found out that Abbey's favorite color was purple and a lot of people were going to be wearing purple to the funeral.  Joe wanted to honor her and wear purple too.  He found a purple tie, but there was no shirt anywhere near that color.  So he bought a black shirt.  It was a little tight on him, but he figured he could pull it off for the funeral.

We headed back to the house to change for the viewing.  I wore a short gray dress with black leggings and that wonderful gray sweater I had just bought.  Joe was wearing black pants, a gray shirt, black jacket and a black and gray tie.  In Philly we always dress up to go to a viewing.

D.J. came back to the house.  He had been at the funeral home.  He said he was just going in jeans.  Jeans?  He had to be there early, so since Joe knew where it was, we just went ourselves.

The viewing as at Covington Funeral Home.

The place was packed.  And almost everyone was in jeans or some other casual wear.  Joe and I were definitely overdressed!

It was so very sad.  I so wanted to meet Abbey.  We had planned on going down in about 8 weeks and Abbey and I were looking forward to sitting in a corner and talking and talking.  She was one of the sweetest, nicest people I have ever had the privilege to know. It was strange to be there looking at her body and not talking with her. I'm so glad I had the chance to know her through talking to her on the phone and emailing.

Joe introduced me to her sisters and brother, her other children and some other family members that he knew, including her husband.  Everyone was so grateful that we came all the way from Philadelphia.  Everyone was so nice to us.

We saw D.J.'s ex-wife there and went up to talk to her for awhile.  Her cancer is back and she may be losing her vocal chords entirely.   Please  pray for her.

Sometime during the day I lost my cell phone.  I searched the room we were in, all my pockets, my purses, the car.  Nothing.  D.J. had been calling me and he said no one answered.  So we left the viewing a little early and went back to IHOP and Walmart to see if anyone had turned it in.  No luck.

I ended up buying a new phone because I had to have one.  The lady in Walmart was about to close up, but she opened the store up again to help us. Everyone we met down there was so nice and helpful.  She tried to get my minutes transferred over, but their system was down.  When we got home D.J. tried and later I tried.  No luck.  So I ended up buying minutes so I could use the phone.  At least I was able to keep my number.  But all my contacts and photos are gone.  Things I will never be able to get again.  I didn't save them anywhere else.  Oh well, it's only a thing. So my old phone is somewhere in Tipton County, Tennessee and your guess is as good as mine where it is.

As we were driving back to D.J.'s house we passed a DQ Grill and Chill.  Every time we passed this Joe kept telling me how good it was.  So this time we stopped and went in to get burgers.  (We have Dairy Queen but no Grill and Chill.  I have never heard of it before.)

We got burgers and Joe got a blizzard.  There were only two other people in there -- a father and daughter.  We started talking to them and he and Joe struck up quite a friendship.  They exchanged phone numbers and even called each other tonight.  This was a God moment for sure since he is a born again Christian and so is his daughter.  We had such a good time talking with them.

When we got back to the house D.J. and Danielle were waiting for us.  They were worried because they didn't know where we were (we had been gone 3 hours) and I had no phone so they couldn't reach us.  They thought we had gotten lost or something happened and we couldn't even call 911.  It's nice to know your kids care about you.

So after spending some time with them, we went to bed.  The funeral was the next day.

This is the end of Day 2.

Kathy