I posted this message on the memorial thread, but thought I'd include it here in case people miss it.

Today my wife Ruth and I are swinging into what passes for a normal day around here. But, it's not just another day. Yesterday we drov e up to Sharon for Kealan's memorial service. Over the years, I've become somewhat of an unintended funeral attender. I sing with the Men's Chorus in my church and as often as possible, I go to funerals at our church and sing with the choir. When my gospel quartet was still active, we often sang a home-going ceremonies, Christian and even Jewish. My two son-in-laws are Muslim and we've attended their funeral services as well. All that said, I thought the memorial service for Kaelan was the most beautiful I've ever attended. Even though the service was held in a school auditorium and many of the people in attendance aren't church-goers, we had church yesterday. At least my definition of church. There was great crying at times and great joy, as well. When a wonderful black woman sang I'll Fly Away and people locked arms and swayed to the music as they sang along, it felt like they could leviate the building. The testimonies were extremely moving, and filled with warm humor. Caroline sang a musical setting for the familiar reading that St. Paul wrote in 1st Corinthinas, her voice quavering with emotion, but strong, and the whole service was moving blend of testimony, poetry and song. Letters were read from Sandy to his grandson, and David to his son, as well as from several other family members.

After the service, we gathered in the cafeteria for a vegetarian buffet with a dangerous, long, long table of deserts. It was a time for me to see many friends I've not seen for years including Ed Trickett, Sally Rogers, Dalas Cline, Bill and Andy Spence, George Ward, Patricia Campbell, Karen Kobela, Priscilla Herdman and countless others.

We must be getting old. We get together at funerals.

Sunday was a beautiful bookend to a very spiritual weekend.

Jerry