Today is Friday, Dec 16 which is George's big retirement day! Bless his heart...he has been counting down the days, weeks, months for what seems like forever and he is finally down to ZERO! We are celebrating by taking a motorhome trip to AZ, something we have been planning since we returned from Traverse City. So....off we go on another adventure. WHOO HOO...
We just barely made it out of the State of FL into Robertsdale, AL, a 400+ mile day and we are tired. I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of my phone ringing....well, I'm awake anyway so I got up to check it, leaving George in bed asleep. It was Michael (#2 nephew), then I noticed a missed call at 4:18 AM from David (#1 nephew). Uh oh...something's not right. Fearing the worst, I called Michael first, then David, and they informed me that my brother-in-law, Hal, had passed away in the night. Oh no, I thought...I was just up there a week ago and felt he was going to be around for a good while. I'm so sad. Hal was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer 4 months ago. David and Cornelia were on their way from their home in NC to Chattanooga. Then my sister called....and I felt so bad for her. She encouraged me to carry on with our trip since I had just been there for a visit. Well, there's just no way I could do that. Poor thing was so upset she didn't know what to do next. She was talking about waiting until after Christmas to have the burial as she didn't want to ruin everyone's holiday. I kept her on the phone until her friend Marie got there, then, shortly after that, David and Cornelia would be there.
By this time George is up and we talked about what to do. Naturally, I wanted to head up to Chattanooga right then but, since we didn't know what Linda's plans would be, cooler heads prevailed (that would be George's) and it made sense to stay put until we had some solid news about the arrangements. Meantime, she asked me to call family members, one of which lived in Mobile, AL, less than 30 minutes from where we were staying. When I called her, she blessed me out for calling so early then insisted we come over for a visit, which we did. Maxine is my oldest cousin and a very colorful character. We had a great visit with her and husband Jack and, albeit under sad circumstances, we were able to laugh and tell stories of the past, then she gave me a bottle of wine and sent us on our way. We drove over to Cosmo's, our favorite restaurant in Orange Beach, and had a late lunch/early dinner. I had a much needed glass of wine and George had a beer...we relaxed, letting the day's events settle in.
The news came from Cornelia later that evening and, thank goodness, Linda's Pastor had stopped by her house and managed to talk her into going forward with the service, convincing her that waiting would be agonizing for her. She agreed and started making arrangements to have the visitation and memorial service at their church followed by a military burial at Hamilton Memorial Gardens on Wednesday...4 days from now. We reacted quickly, moving our AZ reservations forward one week. We spent Saturday night in Robertsdale and planned to get to Chattanooga Sunday, but, George checked the Chattanooga weather forecast and it was expected to be below freezing for all of Sunday night which means we couldn't expose the RV to that kind of weather, so, we spent Sunday in Montgomery, just below the cold front.
Realizing that we had no "funeral clothes", we went shopping in the cold rain and got our outfits together. George brought a pair of gray dress pants with him so we bought him a white dress shirt, tie and black socks at TJ Maxx; a pair of black shoes and a jacket at Belk and a dress and shoes for me at Dillard's. I could borrow a coat from Linda once we got to Chattanooga. Cornelia and I stayed in constant touch, either by text or phone. Also talked to Michael and he and Karen were flying in Tuesday evening with Karen's sons, Tucker and Chase.
In the process of calling family members, I found out from cousin Joan that her mother (my only living aunt) had fallen on Friday and had been in the hospital but now in a rehab facility not doing so well. Oh my...yet another family crisis. I decided not to tell Linda and Joan decided not to tell her mom about Hal.
We arrived in our favorite Chattanooga campground, Raccoon Mountain RV, Monday afternoon. I checked in with Cornelia and she texted me a grocery list for Linda. We obliged and headed up the mountain to her house. We hugged and hugged and hugged some more, almost cried then settled in to talk. She seemed to have it together, thanks to David, Cornelia and the Pastor. We talked Linda into going out to dinner at Mount Vernon Restaurant just a few miles away. David, Cornelia and Emma (David's youngest daughter) joined us. They gave us a quiet, private area off to ourselves and was the first time Linda relaxed a little. We had wine and a great meal followed by a huge dessert to share.
Tuesday Linda, David and Cornelia met with the funeral home personnel which gave George and I a chance to go visit Aunt A. She is very frail, 81 lbs and has memory issues. Fortunately, she did not suffer any broken bones due to her fall but she is weak and will not be released until she gets stronger. I am, once again, very sad.
It's Wednesday already, and we left for the church at noon as I am one of those people that is always early, never late. Linda, David and Cornelia were already there and Michael, Karen and her boys drove up right behind us. We rambled through the church until we found them in the basement. We all went up into the main vestibule to view the body and hugged some more then back into the basement to get ready to receive visitors. I stood with Linda in the receiving line for an hour and a half until the Pastor rang the bell that the service was about to begin. The line was still out the door. Hal had so many friends and co-workers in attendance to pay their respects that it didn't seem right not to acknowledge them so we sped up the line as best we could before being led upstairs by the Pastor. The service was beautiful, his tribute was very nice and David and Michael spoke bringing us to tears. We proceeded to the graveside service. Fortunately, it was a beautiful sunny day and not too cold. Hal was a Navy veteran and the military part of the service was very moving, once again bringing tears to my eyes.
Linda arranged for the family and close friends to gather at The Walden Club, a private supper club on the 21st floor of a downtown bank building for which she and Hal are members. We had a private room with heavy h'orderves, wine, beer and soft drinks. We left there about 8:30 and the immediate family gathered at Linda's house for a few more hours of talking,visiting and saying our good-byes. Unfortunately, all of us were leaving the next day. We got to bed at 11:30 exhausted.
I've been calling her every day we've been on the road just to keep tabs on her, being supportive and helping her tie up loose ends with insurance, etc.
