Funeral

I phoned Wayne yesterday afternoon to tell him that I would not be able to attend his mom's funeral today. It felt like I was letting him down. He was so kind to say that I needed to take care of my health and not to worry. But, I feel awful about not being there.

The funeral will be a three hour car ride up to the Gold Country at 2:00 this afternoon and Michael is driving with our friend Shawn and possibly Randy the cop. He is going for Wayne.

Funerals. An odd subject, I know. When Michael was younger, he would not go to funerals. He didn't see the point. The person was gone. It wasn't until he was older that he realized that funerals are for the support of the surviving family as well as honoring the deceased. It is a milestone. It is the beginning of the first big emotional step forward. It is part of the grieving process.

We are of an age where we are attending a lot of funerals, mainly parents of friends. The hard ones for us are our contemporaries. I understand from friends that the most difficult and emotional are one's own siblings and spouse's funerals. I so hope I never have to attend either of those.

While Michael is gone all day today, I will worry about him on the road but thankfully, the rain has let up for the day. My plans are to prepare the documents for the tax preparer and to set up my files for 2015. That should take many hours while I wait to hear his keys in the door.