"He is Conan, Cimmerian. He Won't Cry. So I Cry For Him."
I also detailed this duty. I find I can't. It is not for lack of love. Love is just channeled into duty, and so it is in the things done that I express my sense of loss. I have come to know that a very great deal was lost. So many have come to tell me, and to ask to help in ways they cannot. I have a list I am building of people who want to come to the funeral. We weren't even going to have one. Dad hated them. Now it looks like we will have a funeral with military and Fire Department honors, because it answers a demand.
The Fire Department stripped the flags from their stations, the police stopped traffic on all the streets, and the Firemen lined the streets with their trucks when they moved his body to the funeral home. No one asked them to do this. They needed to do it.
Such was my father.
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4 comments:
Of course you should have a funeral. It's not about whether the departed loved one approved of them or enjoyed attending them, it's about your need and the need of your community to mark his passing. It's very beautiful when the firemen acknowledge the death of a comrade. There are more ways to express grief than with tears.
Tex is right- the funeral is for the living. Your father was a loved and respected man. It is likely you will discover wonderful stories about him at the funeral, from his comrades, that you would never know otherwise.
What they said.
I'm glad they let you know they needed this, because it is important, and they may not have been the only ones.
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