The time change threw me this morning, I had my clock set ahead and then it went and set itself – I was up way earlier than I had planned. \u00a0I had a little breakfast, said good-bye to my cat, then got in the car and headed to Wheeling, WV. \u00a0It was raining part of the time and all I had for company was the radio and the occasional suggestion from my GPS. \u00a0The drive was uneventful and couldn’t help but remember the last time I drove that stretch of highway by myself. \u00a0That time, I was headed for a funeral.<\/p>\n
I got into town a little earlier than I had expected and stopped to get some snacks for the drive back before I went to Jeff’s sister’s house. \u00a0She met me at the door and was happy to see me. \u00a0She showed me some scrapbooks she was working on with picture’s of Jeff for her niece and nephew – and a couple of the photos made us both tear up.<\/p>\n
She drove us to lunch and we had a nice meal, and\u00a0reminisced\u00a0about Jeff\u00a0while we ate \u00a0– both careful to stay clear of the more difficult memories.<\/p>\n
After lunch, she drove us out to the\u00a0cemetery. \u00a0She and her siblings had scattered some of Jeff’s ashes next to where their parents were buried after the funeral, but they had only recently gotten the headstone in place. \u00a0This was the first time I’d been back since the funeral and as I walked down the path and saw the headstone for Jeff, the floodgates opened up. \u00a0I know he wasn’t there and even the ashes and headstone are just symbols – but it didn’t matter. \u00a0We both stood there for a while and wept.<\/p>\n
When we were both a little more under control we talked and shared stories. \u00a0The day had turning to a beautiful one and as sad as it was, it was nice to be outside in the quiet of the\u00a0cemetery.<\/p>\n
We didn’t stay long – I think it was too rough on us both – and she suggested we stop at a park and enjoy the day before she had to go into work and I had to get back on the road. \u00a0We talked some more and then it was time to go.<\/p>\n
There were hugs at the door and a sad goodbye – and then I was on the road headed home. \u00a0 My GPS tried to steer me wrong a couple times, but the road was\u00a0familial\u00a0and I stayed the course.<\/p>\n
It was a difficult trip, but I think a good and necessary one. \u00a0I think it did Jeff’s sister some good as well. \u00a0She had asked me as we left the\u00a0cemetery\u00a0if I felt better or worse and I really didn’t have an answer. \u00a0Which is to be expected, I guess.<\/p>\n
But I’m glad I went and I’m glad for the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The time change threw me this morning, I had my clock set ahead and then it went and set itself – I was up way earlier than I had planned. \u00a0I had a little breakfast, said good-bye to my cat, then got in the car and headed to Wheeling, WV. \u00a0It was raining part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1378,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}