My Dad

My Dad's memorial service at the church was on May 30, and the interment of his ashes at Fort Snelling was on May 31.

Lots of people came to the church service and stayed for lunch. The night before, Debbie and I put together three big stand-up poster boards of photos of Dad. It was really good for us to do that, because there were photos of him spanning the 84 years of his life, and it helped us to remember how he was when he was "the jolly fat man" and not as ill as he's been for the past two years.

The ceremony at Fort Snelling was very moving. Just a small number of family were there. The honor guard did the three gun salute and gave Mom the flag and the shells. We all cried when they played taps. Then the honor guard hopped into a bus to zip off to the next funeral staging area for another WWII vet - there's so many that they're scheduled every 15 minutes.

When the honor guard was gone, it was just us family under the canopy. The rest of the cemetery was very empty except for a lone man wearing sunglasses and standing under a tree about 200 yards away - just watching our funeral party. Okay - Dad would have loved that little bit of intrigue at his funeral - just like something out of the mysteries that he loved to read! Who was he? Debbie said, "Maybe he's Dad's illegimate son!" which gave us a laugh (Dad would have been pleased that there was a moment of levity at his funeral too). A little moment of happiness in a really sad day. We'll miss our "jolly, fat" Dad.