Celebration of Life

Wow... that was cool. It has been a three day extravaganza of relatives and friends, I now know why they say blood is thicker than water. We had Pops "Celebration of Life" party on Saturday and had roughly 60 people there. That is great, considering if we had it in Houston or Mizzou the number would have been a lot more. Pops did great for the whole deal and was better than I had seen him in the last few weeks. The key was we gave him "Provigil" as a pep pill and it did wonders. His attitude and recall were great in relation to the past month- I also know he has been on cloud nine with both his brothers and all sorts of relatives in town. My main concern at this point is the crash that will follow when all relatives are gone. He already broke down after his brothers left. He cried and cried and said that it was "the end of the brotherhood" about five minutes after Eric left. It took a minute for it to sink in but he grasped the finality of if after Eric drove away. I can only imagine. I love my brothers and would be distraught if I knew that was it- the last goodbye. His only saving grace was that more kin showed up after Eric left. Eric told him to "look up my boy when you get there" as he lost a valued son years ago. I think it took Pops a few minutes to realize the magnitude of the comment when put out there. But I say this, family is solid, and I'd die for my siblings if I had the choice.

The service was great. It was 2 hours long and I finally had to cut it off because it was just that... 2 hours long. We had a good walk down memory lane and I learned some stories about my Dad. He is a beautiful man and I learned that he had a mischievous upbringing as a boy. Nice. A bit of validation for my own dirty deeds growing up.
Honestly, it could not of gone any better. I have this to say.... I have great relatives. The folks at the celebration told tear jerking as well as humorous stories to no avail. Follow that up, stories of military prowness and goofy exploits. I now know what they mean by FAMILY. Roger, Heather, Mike, Laura, Lana, Lynette, and my siblings and aunts and uncles.... THANK YOU FOR A GREAT TIME AND A WONDERFUL RECONNECTION. My wife, KA(it's not Kay but short for KerryAnn)expressed how lucky I was to have great relatives that were so friendly. It's family baby!!!!! Church relations also brought in stories from past and present. Although my parents and I believe different doctrine of religion it was still a great deal to hear about God's word and how my father had lived his life spreading Jesus Christ to those who were in need.

I must admit I am half exhausted by the whole ordeal- especially since I learned that I was "the organizer". I was asked numerous times where people were supposed to be and how things were gonna happen. I had no idea I had so much power, or else I would of set up a Humphrey "dance off" or a group Twister game. I have a ton of pics and will load them soon. I also want to load the 15 minute Lone Star video of his life. If anyone knows how, let me know. C ya......... Matt