Beowabbit

I’d been meaning to post some more detail about the visitation and the funeral for some time, but at this point I don’t know when I’m going to get that much time and energy, so I’ll just say that ka9sqb’s funeral was lovely and moving and just about perfect. The officiant did a wonderful job, and lots of people who had been close to ka9sqb got up and told beautiful stories about him and his impact on our lives. A metaphor the officiant used, which I really liked, was the wonderful quilt that ka9sqb had woven of the people in his life. He had such wide interests, and he could talk to anybody about anything and sound (and be!) knowledgeable and engaged. And at the funeral, that quilt was very obvious.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, I was very glad to be able to show plumtreeblossom where I’d grown up, and introduce her to so many of my relatives and old friends and family friends and friends of ka9sqb’s. It was her first time in corn country, where the sky spans a hundred and eighty degrees. And on Tuesday (as part of a little tour of the town and the campus), we stopped in at the very pretty university library where I spent so many happy hours as a child and young adult. (As well as reading library books there, I used to take my own books there to sit and read, because it was quiet and pleasant and air conditioned.) That was a special sort of warm nostalgia for me.

I just finished writing my remarks for the funeral tomorrow and don’t have time to do today justice, but I had to say that hundreds of people came through today to celebrate Don at his visitation. So many people loved and appreciated him! It was open-casket, so he was there looking dapper and handsome as always, but you could tell it wasn’t really him any more, because the kindly but impish smile was missing. But, sometimes through tears, you could see it in the faces of the people he touched.

I just wished my awsome and fabulous stepfather ka9sqb happy birthday on the phone, but I wanted to do it here, too. Happy birthday!