Bye Dad

The funeral.

Well, we buried my father yesterday. The night before we had the wake, and over 300 people attended! It was nice to meet some of you who I only knew online and to finally see you in the flesh, or as the cyber-geeks say "in the meatworld."

I took a few pics at the funeral. I mean, does an event even really occur if nobody blogs about it?

After the wake, instead of going back to Northampton I stayed at my sister Donna's house in Belchertown. This is her cat, who will soon be 16 years old.

 



The funeral home in West Springfield had this enormous tree in front, it looks about the size of the 300 year old grandaddies to be found at UMass. 

The funeral mass was held at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in ol' Pine Point. My great-grandfather helped with some of the carpentry work on that church. Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe sent an honor guard to lead the funeral procession, which is a wonderful gesture that my family greatly appreciates. The Sheriff did the same when my mother died.

 



Here the honor guard salutes as my father's casket leaves the church.

 



Among those in attendance was my Dad's boyhood friend Doug Ariel, who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Springfield in 1971.

Here is the cover to my father's grave.

My father was one of our Valley's best known and most popular bartenders for many decades. My brother pointed out yesterday that my father was a true bartender right to the very end, having died around two in the morning.

In the barkeeping business, that time is known as last call.