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We got here (to my Grandma's huse) just in time to help come up with the program for the service. I guess they need to bring a biography and program plan over to the home tomorrow morning, so my mom and her brothers and her mom are in the other room trying to decide what exactly we're going to do.
I can just remember Granddaddy's funeral, back in the summer before 8th grade. I read a Robert Service poem, as he is both of our favorite poets, and we both had a thing for "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Also, when I walked into the kitchen with dishes from dinner, my dad and I looked at each other and started singing the chorus to "I'll Fly Away." A bunch of cousins, along with my dad and I sang that and "Amazing Grace" at Granddaddy's funeral because he was a pilot. What's funny is that even though I was closer to Bops and I have many many more memories of him (because Granddaddy had a stroke when I was pretty little and I really only have one memory of him from before it) I don't feel I have anything I can sing or play or say at the service on Monday. They don't want to make it overly religious (which I, ironically, could actually play along with really well), and they can't really think of anyone who would be able to speak at it, even among themselves.
All I can really think of is how even though I'm the third cousin, I'm the one who named him Bops. I wasn't able to say Grandpops when I was little, so it just came out as Bops, and it always stuck. I'm not sure that this is completely true - actually I just confirmed it and they all have decided that I have to speak now. It came about because one night when he and my grandma were babysitting, he went back to check on me, and I was alseep (as a baby) and so he went to creep out, but he stepped on a creaky part of the floor and little me, waking up upset, saw him sneaking out and screamed "BOPS!!!" as I couldn't pronounce what my two older cousins called him.
Damn, he was so hilarious, I can't believe he's really gone, and not just in the other room watching T.V. or taking his before-dinner nap. Time to finish that third glass of wine.
"I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away..."
I can just remember Granddaddy's funeral, back in the summer before 8th grade. I read a Robert Service poem, as he is both of our favorite poets, and we both had a thing for "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Also, when I walked into the kitchen with dishes from dinner, my dad and I looked at each other and started singing the chorus to "I'll Fly Away." A bunch of cousins, along with my dad and I sang that and "Amazing Grace" at Granddaddy's funeral because he was a pilot. What's funny is that even though I was closer to Bops and I have many many more memories of him (because Granddaddy had a stroke when I was pretty little and I really only have one memory of him from before it) I don't feel I have anything I can sing or play or say at the service on Monday. They don't want to make it overly religious (which I, ironically, could actually play along with really well), and they can't really think of anyone who would be able to speak at it, even among themselves.
All I can really think of is how even though I'm the third cousin, I'm the one who named him Bops. I wasn't able to say Grandpops when I was little, so it just came out as Bops, and it always stuck. I'm not sure that this is completely true - actually I just confirmed it and they all have decided that I have to speak now. It came about because one night when he and my grandma were babysitting, he went back to check on me, and I was alseep (as a baby) and so he went to creep out, but he stepped on a creaky part of the floor and little me, waking up upset, saw him sneaking out and screamed "BOPS!!!" as I couldn't pronounce what my two older cousins called him.
Damn, he was so hilarious, I can't believe he's really gone, and not just in the other room watching T.V. or taking his before-dinner nap. Time to finish that third glass of wine.
"I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away..."
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