Another weekend

another funeral. When one lives in a small rural Iowa town, there are a lot of those. This time it was for a gent I'd never met, my roommate Joan McFee Bentley's husband Billy's dad Bill. The Bentleys hail from Diagonal.

We had a busy day planned for Saturday, so I went to the memorial service alone at 2 PM after hitting the grocery store, cleaning and baking brownies. We're having peeps over today for fireworks viewing (see my sad blog from the 4th of July when all the events were cancelled due to storms). Yeah, I know...just call me Suzie Homemaker. I even warshed me up some rugs.

Paul was doing manly stuff like installing our new storm door and mowing the lawn. Then he had to haul organic stuff to the compost site and cardboard to the recycling site. Testosterone was oozing from his pores.

The memorial was crowded - full of Diagonal folks, where the Bentleys lived, Clearfield people - where they retired to and where Bill spent a couple years in the nursing home. Plus Creston people. The service was here in town. Joan, Billy and Billy's mom greeted people as we came in. It's always a bit awkward being introduced as Joan's roommate. (Sometimes to be a smart ass I say - this is who I sleep with during the week - but she's a floor up). Didn't think that appropriate in this case...

Nice service. I was surprised to note that Bill's birth date is exactly my father's - 9/4/28. Plus he died of a similar thing as day - twisted intestine. Weird - no? I couldn't help but think how Dad would have loved to visit with this gentleman I'd never met! They would have found many things to talk about. It made me miss my daddy.

Then I rushed home to be here at 3:00 PM for a meeting with a new couple from our church - we do a marriage ministry, working with couples before they get married. This one ended up being a no-show. It was our first couple assigned since I wrote the letter supporting gay marriage to the local paper. Thought Father Pins likely tossed our names in the 'ol recycle bin after seeing that letter...guess not.

Now it's up to the couple. They'll need to call and reschedule when it fits our schedule. Funerals, weddings - all part of life ay?