I went to Ron’s funeral today: Funerals what a strange tradition. If you remember Ron is the husband of Janice who was in the office next to mine for years when I worked at the Independent Living Center. I went to support Janice and to be honest to see my buds from the Center. Of course they would be there , they would have to be there and they were. I slid right up to Julie, who was next to Ruth, who was next Charlotte, who was next to Kim. I bet if I had rolled in on these guys at staff meeting on Tuesday I would have seen them sitting in this same order. This is the core staff as I got settled in my back row advantage I noticed other members of the staff scattered round the audience but they were the ‘newbees’. No matter how long these ‘newbees’ have been at the Center they will just never have the tenure of the Senior staff.

The funeral seemed small but that could have been due to people sitting all over the chapel. But the funeral was classic Mormon, a life sketch, “I am a Child of God’ sung by the grandchildren a talk by the two eldest children another song and then something I hand never seen done before an “open mic” session where members of the audience could come up and give accounts of the person as they saw it. Very much like a 'speaking' as in Speaker for the Dead by Orson S. Card.
Boy, that took guts. There was this horrible dead time when no one came up to tell their favorite fishing story or their favorite 'grandpa' moment. Finally two of the grand daughters came up and sang a nice going away song. There was a couple sitting behind me—turned out to be Ron's neighbors. The wife was pressuring the old guy to get up and say something so at least something would be said. The old guy finally relented and gave a few comments. I was feeling guilty until I realized the microphone was up a couple of steps and there would not have been a way for me to get to the microphone. I was saved by non accessibility. When the neighbor finished they had the benediction and that was that. They hustled the family out of the chapel and released the rest of the audience and that was that. Julie, one of my old work mates made me promise that I would come forward and say something at her funeral if they did an open mic at her funeral I made her make me the same promise.

Today was a cold day starting out with snowstorm. I chose not to go to the graveside service—I had to get back to the office. Going to someone else's funeral sure makes one think about what theirs is going to be like. Dianne has been on my case for a couple of years now to make my arrangements. I keep dragging my feet but I better get busy and plan the party the way I want it or bot, well I be disappointed..