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Bon voyage
Jan. 15th, 2010 06:14 pmWe had Pop's funeral Mass today up in Orange County. It went much better than we were hoping. Steve had been saying that few people would show up, but we had about 40 attendees, including his family from Arizona.
We started out from here just after 0600 and were seated at a Denny's at 0800. Denny's now has whole wheat pancakes, turkey bacon and chicken sausage, so Steve was delighted to be able to have breakfast meat in a resto again. (He is allergic to pork.) After that we joined Steve's older sister at Pop's old apartment, then went over to the church. I was wearing my ACUs and beret, and a Vietnamese parishioner walking with his toddler daughter pointed to me and said "Solza! Look! A solza!" We had a nice chat with an 80+ year old eucharistic minister who was about to bring the Sacrament to her husband and folks at the retirement community and she gave me a big hug when I mentioned I was an EM in Bagram.
In the meantime, flowers were arriving and Steve was amazed that we received four separate arrangements. Once Mass started I did the readings and Steve and I presented the gifts. The organist and cantor were just great, and our hymns were ones we knew Pop would have liked, pre-Vatican II hits "Holy God We Praise Thy Name", "Immaculate Mary" and "Holy, Holy, Holy." The organist wasn't sure she had the music, but she did, so the exeunt music was the Navy Hymn.
People stood chatting and reunioning in the lobby afterwards, so I suggested to Steve that we remove ourselves to Souplantation. Besides the fact that it's a big place where everyone can find something to eat, it was Pop's favourite lunch place. He even took my mom there after Steve's and my wedding.
So it was a bittersweet occasion, since we said bon voyage to Pop while at the same time reconnecting to relatives we hadn't seen in a couple of years. Steve told his Arizona family we'll visit in August after I'm back. Since I'll have de-mobed through Ft. Benning, it should be nice and comfortable weather.
We started out from here just after 0600 and were seated at a Denny's at 0800. Denny's now has whole wheat pancakes, turkey bacon and chicken sausage, so Steve was delighted to be able to have breakfast meat in a resto again. (He is allergic to pork.) After that we joined Steve's older sister at Pop's old apartment, then went over to the church. I was wearing my ACUs and beret, and a Vietnamese parishioner walking with his toddler daughter pointed to me and said "Solza! Look! A solza!" We had a nice chat with an 80+ year old eucharistic minister who was about to bring the Sacrament to her husband and folks at the retirement community and she gave me a big hug when I mentioned I was an EM in Bagram.
In the meantime, flowers were arriving and Steve was amazed that we received four separate arrangements. Once Mass started I did the readings and Steve and I presented the gifts. The organist and cantor were just great, and our hymns were ones we knew Pop would have liked, pre-Vatican II hits "Holy God We Praise Thy Name", "Immaculate Mary" and "Holy, Holy, Holy." The organist wasn't sure she had the music, but she did, so the exeunt music was the Navy Hymn.
People stood chatting and reunioning in the lobby afterwards, so I suggested to Steve that we remove ourselves to Souplantation. Besides the fact that it's a big place where everyone can find something to eat, it was Pop's favourite lunch place. He even took my mom there after Steve's and my wedding.
So it was a bittersweet occasion, since we said bon voyage to Pop while at the same time reconnecting to relatives we hadn't seen in a couple of years. Steve told his Arizona family we'll visit in August after I'm back. Since I'll have de-mobed through Ft. Benning, it should be nice and comfortable weather.
