On December 15th, Carole and I left on an unplanned trip to Philadelphia, Pensylvania. A few days earlier Carole's maternal grandfather had passed away at the age of 88, and we were heading to the funeral and services.
We had a brief stop over in Las Vegas on the way down, and I couldn't resist putting a couple bucks into one of the airport slot machines. Fortunately, that $2 turned into $47.25 in just a few pulls, so pretty much all of our trip's meal expenses were paid for courtessy of the state of Nevada.
We were picked up at the Philidelphia airport around midnight by Carole's aunt Margo, who was not only kind enough to give us a lift, but let us stay at their home for the four nights we'd be in town. It was zero (er, 32F?) degrees when we landed and the snowstorm that had caused our slight delay in Vegas was just starting to turn to rain. There was still about 6 inches of snow on the ground, but by the next morning it was mostly washed away.
On Friday we met up with the rest of the family at Carole's grandmother's home, and met up with many other relatives that were ariving from all over the globe. Carole's mom and Brian had been in Cabo San Lucas, and flew straight from Mexico. Other family came from Colorado, Montana, Phoenix, New Jersey, and we were even expecting an arival from Bologna Italy, but due to a missed connection in Frankfurt Germany, she didn't make it into town until the next evening.
The next morning we all assembled at the funeral parlour for the viewing. Many more relatives were in attendance, and I met so much of Carole's wonderful extended family - it was unfortunate that it had to be under such circumstances.
Carole's grandmother had requested that I be one of the pall bearers, along with the other grandsons. When the viewing concluded, we set the hearse on it's way to the church, and followed in the long procession. I guess the traffic laws are slightly different there, as the funeral director gave each vehicle a 'funeral' flag, and said that traffic lights don't apply for processions - if the hearse goes through a light, everyone should follow - so more that a mile's length of cars slowly wound their way through the brisk, yet clear and sunny Pensylvania countryside to the church.
After mass and the funeral service had completed, the procession once again slowly, peacefully wound it's way through the countryside to the cemetary for a full military burial. As Carole's grandfather was an Air Force Colonel during WWII, there was a Seargent at arms to play taps on his bugle, and two corporals to fold and present the flag. I must say, as a foreign observer, I still found this to be one of the most emotionally stirring services I've ever attended.
When the visibly shaken corporal who presented Carole's grandmother with the flag choked on the words "On behalf of the President of the United States, the Department of the Air Force, and a grateful nation, we offer this flag for the faithful and dedicated service of Lt. Colonel Ralph Palaia. Thank you." there were a lot more teary eyes than just his. And the Seargent who played taps did so so beautifully , stirring up such strong simultanious emotions of pride, sorrow, and joy, that even the most stalwart of attendees founs themselves a little misty eyed.
Later, everyone ajourned to Carole's grandmother's retirement community where food and drinks were served. In a more relaxed setting, we conversed with relatives we hadn't seen in ages, and had a really nice evening. Sprits were actually quite high, and being the holiday season, with decorations adorning the grande rooms, the mood almost seemed festive. It was a very nice evening spent with family.
The next day about 14 of us went out for a nice Italian lunch, then spent the evening at Shanondell again (the retirement community) where we played billiards, shuffle board, and even found the card room where we started up a couple poker tables. Just spendign time with relatives and catching up was really nice.
The next day, we were off bright and early - like three AM early - and after a brief stop over in the frigid and snow sweapt Salt Lake City, we were home Monday evening, returning to work on Tuesday... which only gave us three days before flying out to our winter vacation in Puerto Vallarta.
Posted by Calvin at December 20, 2005 09:12 AMI completely agree...it really was a wonderful family gathering. I'm sure PopPop was smiling down with pleasure at seeing all the family there...getting both comfort and joy from their time together.
Posted by: paladane at January 6, 2006 05:14 PM