Recently, I posted about Husband telling me a few days ago that he had had a dream about attending a Catholic wake, and then a couple days after that the father of a good friend of ours passed away........prompting the fulfillment of that dream. Yesterday, Husband and I attended the funeral home visitation for Gene, shown here during his Army days during the Korean Conflict. (Yes, I took photos of photos at the funeral home......in order to have a remembrance of this special man.)
He is fondly remembered as a husband, father, brother, grandfather, dairy farmer, mechanic, carpenter, neighbor.......and a downright friendly person. When I hugged his wife today, she said, "I've lost my lifelong best friend. I met him when I was fifteen, and I knew right away he was the one." At that time, she was working as a hired girl for her married sister, and Gene was a hired man on her sister's father-in-law's farm." I imagine both had been done with school after eighth grade; that was common back then. Gene's obituary simply said he attended country school before becoming a farmer.
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Life for them was not all rosy. They had five children, two of whom died tragically on the same day in a drowning accident back in the early 1960's.
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Gene had seven brothers and one sister. Here are the eight boys. Can you imagine cooking meals everyday for this crew! I see Gene there in the back row, on the right..JPG)
*There at the funeral home, we followed the line through, visiting with Gene's family, viewing the flowers, and paying our respects at the casket. I'm not a Catholic, so bear with me when I mention the loveliness of the rosary beads twined through Gene's fingers. At 4 p.m., a parish Rosary was scheduled to take place. We were still standing around visiting when Husband suddenly nudged me and said, "We better get out of here.....they're about to start the
Rosary." Besides, we needed to head home for chores, anyway. As we pulled on our coats, "Hail Mary's" were already filling the air. I asked Husband on the way home, "In your dream, were you fleeing the Rosary, too.......just like in real life today?" He smiled and shook his head, "no".
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As we drove along, Husband reminisced about his friendship with Gene's son......how they had bonded immediately when they met in 9th grade, and the almost uncanny similarities in their lives. Both boys lived on dairy farms. On both farms, the milking barn had been destroyed in the mid-1960's (Gene's barn was struck by lightning and burned down; Husband's dad's barn was blown down by a tornado). Both dads had served in the Korean Conflict. Both sets of parents had lost a child/children. And, now, both dads had passed away within 14 months of each other. Not so unusual, I guess......but it made for an interesting conversation as we drove home.
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Today is Inauguration Day. As you probably will be doing, too, I'll be sending up continual prayers that everything goes without a hitch today in Washington, D.C., and that everyone stays safe! It will be a very moving, memorable day.......I'm looking forward to watching the day's events on TV.
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3 comments:
I don't know when they started putting up photo boards at funerals, but they're wonderful.
This was a touching, reflective post, and did honor to your friend.
i think president obama talked about these men in his inauguration speech. those that work and toil in obscurity for family and community. these men are the honor and truth of america.
We recently buried my father (last November). We are Catholic and had the whole wake/funeral mass etc. My favourite part of the Catholic mass for the dead is the burning of incense to symbolize rising up to meet our Lord. I love the smell of incense. To me it is very comforting.
The whole idea is of salvation and going to a better life in the afterlife. It makes the death bearable, if you will. Without it, we would feel so empty.
Kat
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