Another Goodbye
The odd thing about funerals is that sometimes it’s the only place you get to see all of your family together. It happened that way Saturday as we marked the passing of my brother-in-law. Most of my wife’s family showed up, including kids, to mourn the departed. There were some I hadn’t seen in quite some time. We exchanged numbers. I’ll do my best to keep up.
The service was marked by beautiful songs and heartfelt memories from people I’d never seen before. Which is nice, because I only knew my brother-in-law through family. He fished, and I ate it, but I couldn’t catch it because I always got seasick and never found pleasure on the open water. He did and he was always taking people fishing to help stir their love that was his love. He’s the second son in his family to pass and now his father is alone, because his wife left only months before her son.
Now it’s pick up the pieces time and they don’t always pick up and they don’t always get put back in the right place. But I know my sister-in-law will try and I’ll try to help, but she misses her sister, my wife, the oldest who was always there for her. That job has fallen largely to my daughter who loves her aunt and will be there for her, along with her brothers, a bevy of close friends, and a large church community. Here’s hoping it’s enough, because sometimes it feels as though nothing ever is.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale