The Tells:
Uncle LeRoy's Funeral

DayBooks: 05/26/95 08:49 PM (Fri) USAir Flt 712 (DCA-BOS)

I just made the gate for first call to board -- there was something going on at the Kennedy Center, and the parkway was backed up to the P Street exit -- we had to detour over to the 14th street bridge.

The funeral was deja-vu all over again -- the same chapel, Fred Durrah (the brothers of Omega Psi Phi sang during the service), [08490025] Lyndon, Prentis, and I as pall bearers, but only to move the casket from the chapel to the hearse. When we got to the cemetery, there was a full military honor guard to take the coffin to the grave.

The vocalist at the service was a Juliard graduate, and she sang Uncle LeRoy's favorite hymn, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus". There were thunderstorms yesterday, but today was warm and partly cloudy, not too humid, but uncomfortable in a wool suit. Vondel (Henry) Carter rode between me and Mom in the second limo, Pop was in the front seat, Mousie sat in back with Phyllisolive and Vincent.

Lynda & Lisa, Mousie, and Pop sat by the casket -- I helped Pop climb the hill and held his hand through the ceremony. He was given a three gun salute, the blew taps, and then the honor guard folded the flag and presented it to Lynda -- "On behalf of the President of the United States, a grateful nation ..." -- and that's when I lost it. They had a second flag, already folded, for Lisa.

I took the OmniBook and the WWW stuff to share with Lyndon (too soon for L&L), but he didn't come back to the house after the service. Jimmy's nephew, Ken, was at the service, but I didn't see him until we got back to the house.

This is a full flight, but I knew it would take a long time to board, so I had plenty of time to make this entry. Everybody except Mom went to sleep as soon as we got home, and I made the mistake of thinking the flight was at 22:00, but it was an hour earlier. PO and I had to scamble to leave by 19:30, and everything was smooth until we hit Foggy Bottom, and again when we hit the airport -- creeping along with the mass of people trying to get out of town for the 3-day weekend.

The garment bag I bought has worked out well -- it kept them for ladening me with stuff that could be mailed or I could bring back next month in the Adm. Gracie. Out on the porch, I found a hardbound copy of A Canticle for Lebowitz that had been bought for Vincent, and he had never opened -- I told him, "You don't know what you're missing, and it's mine now!

-=DAH=- 26-May-95

2005-05-26: Finally got around to adding pages for all the photos I took that day and had transferred to a Kodak PhotoCD. I've made this a cell phone friendly page, so that's why the icons are in a single, centered column.

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