Church
My mom and I got there a little before the funeral home crowd. We waited out side of the Church. A woman who I learned to be a grand daughter of his, came over and started talking to my mom and I. My father and a friend of his came a few minutes later. The firemen lined up outside of the Church. Everyone went in. Than the firemen lined the isle on both sides of the Church and the family with the coffin, followed. They had a short? Mass. It took about 2 hours. It was nice but the Father would explain what he was going to do, why he was going to do it and than say what he wanted to say. If he would of not done all the explaining, we would have been out of there in just over an hour. The Father read a passage from the old testament and one from the new one. It was a freaky passage I thought. How a friend of Jesus passed away. The time he got to the coffin it was 4 days later. He had the men take off the lid. He than made the man rise from his dead. I didn’t understand that and the purpose of reading that here. Is Chief going to rise from his dead sometime? Like I said, a bit freaky to me. I will keep with the old testament and respectfully leave the new one to its’ followers.
A daughter in law sang a song. Very beautiful voice. She and her husband took turns reading. A second daughter did a reading as well. At the end, the firemen lined up again, the family left first and then all the people.
Burial
It was difficult.
The Father said two prayers, the funeral director had a few words. He closed by saying: “there are two things that firemen do well. Fighting fires and burying one of their own.”
It was beautiful. They had a total of 24 active firemen and an additional 20 or so retired firemen. There was a few people playing bagpipes and drums. They did God Bless America and some other song. They had a few young soldiers, who took the USA flag from the top of the coffin and folded it up, presented to the widow. There was flowers of all types and colors there to put on the coffin. My mom asked if I wanted to put a flower on the coffin. I said yes. We walked up and she said what color would you like? I quickly, with a hurting voice, said “red”. (to myself, for the RedSox games that we discussed over the years). We than walked over to the family, said our condolences and went to the car to head to the Club.
The Club
There is a club I speak of every once in a while that my father belongs to along with Chief Bill. It is a men’s club. Chief Bill mostly played cards there, smoked cigars and drank. They also had have a few tvs including a large screen tv that sports would be on. The club had a nice coldcut tray with sides. I had meatballs. They had great desserts from a top of the line bakery. I had a strawberry cheese cake. I knew a lot of people. People that knew me since I was, hmmm well a baby. I know there is a difference between Jewish funerals and others. Others, including this one, there was a lot of sad voices and people just talking about what’s going on. Granted, these are people who only see each other every so many months, years or … longer, but there was no funny story being told about Chief Bill.
In the Jewish religion, we don’t morn the lost, we celebrate the person’s life. We tell memorable, happy or funny stories about the person. Typically only the family wears black. Others can, but they don’t have to wear black.
We stayed at the club for about a half hour or so. I then said my byes to the family. In the coffin with Chief Bill is a Cigar, a deck of playing cards, a nip of scotch and a glass cup from the Continental Restaurant. An upscale restaurant that every Thursday night, My father, Chief Bill and a group of guys would go play liar’s poker, smoke cigars, drink and eat, for the last 35 or so years.
My friends: Enjoy life the best you can. Work hard but play harder. Spend time working but spend more time with your friends and family.
Life is short.
You never know when you will be taken from us.
Chief Bill, you may be gone but you will never be forgotten.
I am a better person for knowing you. Thank you.
P.S. say hi to Punchy
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