The Passing of a Loved One
I wanted to wait 'til after the funeral before posting anything. Today was the funeral. My father was buried on his birthday. He would have been 62 today.
Going more in depth into things, last Wednesday, my Aunt Darlis showed up to my house a little before 6pm to tell me the news. I admit to being shocked, because I initially thought she was going to say something about my grandfather. He just had his birthday a week or two ago and turned 85. But when she asked me to sit down, I knew it was something else entirely. My dad called in sick to work on Monday. On Tuesday nobody heard from him. On Wednesday, his brother and sister used bolt cutters to get into his apartment and found him there, already passed away. He has been known for not responding quickly to phone calls and letting his answering machine screen the calls beforehand.
He had a variety of medical issues, from high blood pressure to diabetes to being a smoker (recently quitting again) to being overweight. They don't know for sure yet how he died, other than the fact that it was medical. I don't want to get too much into that.
So the last few days have been something of a trial. Thankfully, my Aunt Lynn started work on setting up things for the funeral. After that, I took over. Picked out flowers, I wanted him in a wood casket because he was a carpenter, the vault, the papers, the pictureboard, and even a slideshow with music. We had to wait over the weekend because it is USD's homecoming. So the visitation was sunday night and the funeral was today, Monday, on a state holiday where most places of business and state-offices, including schools, were closed. It snowed today. There was snow on the ground this morning, but most had melted away by the afternoon.
The apartement is cleaned up, his pickup is at my grandpa's for maybe Andrew to learn to drive in. I'm not sure about that. It's kind of bulky and older. I have all of the papers and things now to set things into motion for afterwards. Seriously, so much stuff to do.
There was so many people at the service. So many. And different people too from the visitation to the service as well. Personally, I think I did pretty well with most of it. I've never felt more exhausted and tired in my life though, but I understand how that can be. Maybe now that it is past the burial, and the rest of things become paperwork, it'll get better.
Going more in depth into things, last Wednesday, my Aunt Darlis showed up to my house a little before 6pm to tell me the news. I admit to being shocked, because I initially thought she was going to say something about my grandfather. He just had his birthday a week or two ago and turned 85. But when she asked me to sit down, I knew it was something else entirely. My dad called in sick to work on Monday. On Tuesday nobody heard from him. On Wednesday, his brother and sister used bolt cutters to get into his apartment and found him there, already passed away. He has been known for not responding quickly to phone calls and letting his answering machine screen the calls beforehand.
He had a variety of medical issues, from high blood pressure to diabetes to being a smoker (recently quitting again) to being overweight. They don't know for sure yet how he died, other than the fact that it was medical. I don't want to get too much into that.
So the last few days have been something of a trial. Thankfully, my Aunt Lynn started work on setting up things for the funeral. After that, I took over. Picked out flowers, I wanted him in a wood casket because he was a carpenter, the vault, the papers, the pictureboard, and even a slideshow with music. We had to wait over the weekend because it is USD's homecoming. So the visitation was sunday night and the funeral was today, Monday, on a state holiday where most places of business and state-offices, including schools, were closed. It snowed today. There was snow on the ground this morning, but most had melted away by the afternoon.
The apartement is cleaned up, his pickup is at my grandpa's for maybe Andrew to learn to drive in. I'm not sure about that. It's kind of bulky and older. I have all of the papers and things now to set things into motion for afterwards. Seriously, so much stuff to do.
There was so many people at the service. So many. And different people too from the visitation to the service as well. Personally, I think I did pretty well with most of it. I've never felt more exhausted and tired in my life though, but I understand how that can be. Maybe now that it is past the burial, and the rest of things become paperwork, it'll get better.