Goin' Out In Style

We just got home from my sister's husband's father's funeral. The warmth of sympathy and comfort abounded inside hearts and minds, but a sub-zero windchill ruled the world outside here at a church situated amongst Iowa farm fields.

This classic restored Ford pick-up bore the casket to the cemetery behind the church:

My brother-in-law was at the wheel of the pickup bearing his dad's casket:

The man buried today had restored this pickup with the help of several of his friends.......in anticipation of this occasion. His obituary stated he died "after an eight-year battle against a multitude of cancers". He had faced the disease head-on, undergoing many surgeries to stay ahead of the game, but his heart finally gave out following an operation last week. He was 65 years old.

Pinned inside the lid of the casket were notes from the young grandchildren. One said: "Say HI to Dale Earnhardt for me." (Racing is an interest of the whole family.)

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Here's what was printed inside the funeral folder:

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There.....she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There.....she is gone!" There are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

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Here's how the road looked on our way home after the funeral lunch:

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I hope to soon get back into the swing of blogging. Everything just snowballed this week, with the funeral activities, plus make-up basketball games almost every night of the week.

Within a week or so I should have my daughter's laptop to use here at home. She's buying a new one and I am buying hers. I can hardly wait!

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