Funeral

Dave's Uncle Bobby unexpectedly passed away this week, so I went to the wake in Long Island with Dave to see his family and lend support. Bobby was only 51. He had three sisters. He had a daughter and an ex-wife. He had a girlfriend and tons of friends. He also had a huge family who loved him very much.

I never got the chance to meet him. I had heard he was a happy, partying guy, and sometimes a prankster. He was very open in speech, very opinionated. He thought of religion as long-winded, and loved to talk politics. I had heard crazy stories about Bobby in the past. My favorite one was when he worked at a construction site: He accidentally stepped onto a board with a nail sticking up out of it- and when he jumped up in shock, he hit his head on another wooden board above his head with a nail sticking out of it! He went to the hospital bleeding from his foot AND his head, and had quite a time explaining it...

There were TONS of people there to say their farewells. There were tears of sadness, laughter as people shared their stories, and family gathering together that hadn't seen each other in years. A huge amount of people introduced themselves to family members as people who had worked with him. Bobby was truly a great guy.

The priest came and spoke some about Bobby, but then began to get into heavy tangent about religion. Then, the fire alarm went off. The priest kept talking through it, ignoring it, and lecturing about spreading the word of God. The fire alarm continued- you could hear the people who worked at the funeral home, running around outside the doors, trying not to raise their voices, saying, "There IS no fire!" and "I can't turn it off!” We quietly glanced around at each other... a few smirks... As the priest finished, he spread his arms out wide and said, "Peace, Amen". The alarm stopped at that exact second.

Bobby's girlfriend said aloud, "That was Bobby". We all laughed.