The Last Full Day

Today was early, 7 am. Had a bout of sickness overnight, just one trip to the bathroom, but it subsided quickly after. Took a quick shower, Amanda ironed my (and everyone else's) shirts....and we were off to the funeral.

The church they had the services at is called "Freedom In Christ". I'm noticing there's alot of irregularly named churches out here. Back home, its rare to see places like that. Mostly you see "First Assembly Of God", "St. Peters", that sort of thing. FIC is located in what would appear to be an old doctors office facility that had been gutted and redone to be a church.

The family was put in the 'youth group' room, which was quite spectacularly decorated as a cityscape, complete with Jesus spray painted on the walls. Very "hip" designs, although not as tacky as you'd imagine they'd be. The youth group is entitled "Route 180 Youth Group"....I'm guessing 180 degrees sort of thing. Interesting.

So we were led out of the room so we could walk by Vincent's casket. His grandmother was inconsolable standing in front of him...it was hard not to break down even though I'd really not known the guy except for that one day I met him. We walked by quickly because there was a big line, and sat down with the rest of the family near the front.

The service was quicker than most I've been to; they played a few songs: Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky" but remade into a pretty cool techno song...another spiritual song that for some reason I can't recall...and a Michael Bolton cover of "Lean On Me" that was interesting as well. Not much was said outside of how good of a kid he was.

We went out to the cemetary for the service (something I'd never done) and were nearly in the front in the funeral procession. The line of cars stretched back for about a mile...I think the entire high school was out there paying respects. I can only hope I have half that many people at my funeral. Vince was only 17 years old. Just so tragic. It was a hard service to watch, all my family so broken. But hopefully good will come out of it for the community.

Amanda and I will be heading back tomorrow, with or without Robert or Theresa, so we can get back to work on Saturday. I can't say enough how much I appreciate the whole staff of the Homewood for stretching out and helping me be able to take this time off. I know most of the load was juggled by Shawn, the acting General Manager. He's such a good guy.