The family night for my dad’s passing is tonight. We’re having “Family Night” in lieu of a viewing, since Dad’s being cremated. We are borrowing an urn, since Dad is being shipped off to the crematory in a city near the beach and won’t be back until Thursday.
We were in the funeral home again today, which made me think I might cry, but I didn’t. We setup the pictures of dad, saw some of the flowers that had been sent already, and set out some of Dad’s Hot Wheels toy car collection and clown collection. Ironically, one of the funeral home workers is scared of clowns.
We picked out the urn to borrow – Mom originally selected an understated one with a bird on it, and I said “Mom, we’re not paying for it. We’re not even buying it. We’re borrowing it. If we can borrow any one of them, let’s borrow the most expensive one.” So we did. We picked up a really beautiful urn that was cast bronze and blue something or other, very ornate and heavy.
So far there are already three sets of flowers, and we’ve gotten lots of sympathy cards, text messages, e-mails, Facebook Messages and Wall Posts, MySpace messages, blog comments, and in-home visitations. It’s always comforting to know people care, especially when you feel like falling down in a time like this.
The song “Let It Be,” the version from the Across the Universe soundtrack, makes me cry. Almost every time I play it. Dad likes the Beatles, so we’re going to play them tonight at family night. I’ve only got “Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Across the Universe” on CD here at my mom’s house, so that’s what we’re going to use.