Meeting Her Prom Date

"I took your mommy to the prom," a gentlemen told me with a wry grin and a thin country accent. Not what you expect to hear at your mother's visitation.

"Boy, do I have some questions for you!" I joked back.

The services for my mom were extremely well done. Meeting my mom's middle school and high school classmates and sitting with her best friend, Brenda, helped me capture a truer image of who she really was - a pretty and shy kind of gal. Pastor Johnny, Brenda's husband, married my parents 36 years earlier. It was fitting that he presided over her funeral.

The first thing he did at the service was order everyone to shout "Yea!" because my mom was now with the Lord.

Where did they get this guy? I was contemptuously wondering who decided to let Johnny have the privilege over the ceremony.

Then he asked everyone to shout out "Booo!" because my mom was taken from us so early.

OK. Not bad. Hilarious, in fact. We all shouted, and felt our emotions validated.

Johnny candidly asserted that we all had be cheated. That was the one word that kept coming to him when he thought about the situation. He told us that it is normal to feel angry and cry out to God - many Psalmists did just that, but in the end they rejoiced.

Most funerals I have attended had pastors who seemed to try and get everyone into a better mood. Johnny allowed us to feel the weight of the day and joined us in our grief. Thank you, Johnny.

The cruise was a cruise. Not exactly my type of vacation, but fitting for a dad and his two kids - we didn't have to think about a thing. The sun warmed our souls, and subtle distractions on the boat helped us to move forward. We shared stories and read old letters. We laughed. We threw pillows at Dad to keep him from snoring. It was a good week.

And it is good to be back in Danville, having one foot already in front of the other.