A Bad Day Gone Good

This past week has been one of the most difficult I can remember.  This includes the 2 years of anguish I suffered that culminated in my divorce.  First I had lost a cousin I grew up with.  We would go over to his house to play, he would come over to our house.  We went through Junior High and High School together.  I knew his wife, sister and his mother is one of my favorite aunts.  As losses go, this was a hard one.  He was was also one of my step-fathers favorite nephews.  My cousin worked for the railroad, same one my step-father worked for and enjoyed very much.  The other thing is my cousins father died when he was a baby and was someone my step-father looked up to.  His father had been fighting in Korea and contracted a disease which presented itself as cancer which also killed my cousin and is now affecting his sister. 

So, going to a funeral which was a tragedy but when we (my girlfriend had accompanied me for support) arrived at my parents they were taking my step-father to the hospital because he had been suffering from yet another infection.  My brother and mother were taking him and asked me to send their apologies for not attending the funeral which I gladly offered to my cousins mother.  My step-father had been ill all week and the week before but this loss really set him back and made him more depressed than ever.  Once they checked into the hospital the doctor said in a few more days he probably would have died.

Once they were on their way to the hospital we made my way to the funeral which was a unique experience in and of itself.  You see, in my family, our funerals involve a coffin, a body, a viewing, prayers, music and sharing stories among ourselves and is usually a Protestant, more often than not Baptist ceremony.  However, this funeral was being conducted in an Episcopalian church which was different than anything I had ever seen before.  Also, there was no coffin, no body just a box with my cousins initials on it.  You see, no one had informed me that he was being cremated.  It was a shock and totally puzzling because his mother, who took care of him constantly for the last 5 years is not Episcopalian and has never voiced support for cremation.  My thoughts and prayers went out to his immediate family and his friends.  He was well loved because that poor church was standing room only.  They had shutdown the railroad so they could attend the service. 

Once the service was over and I talked with my aunt, we headed out to the cemetery.  This cemetery is literally out in the middle of nowhere.  My parents plan to be interred in this same location.  Unfortunately, I had not noticed how low I was on gas so we waited around a few minutes but anxiety overtook me so I went ahead and headed home.  Fortunately we made it back to society to get gas.  Elated that I hadn't been stranded for lack of fuel.

So, we start heading back home and then we heard a very odd noise.  Thinking I had a flat to contend with, I was thrilled that all my tires were properly inflated but didn't notice that the front right tire had thrown tread from the inside of the tire which would only be noticed if you looked at it very closely.  We continued on our way with a little trepidation because the noise didn't come from a tire then could it be the engine?  Anyway, I stopped a while later for gas and examined the tire more closely when I noticed the missing chunks of rubber on the tire. 

Before the meeting I received a text for information needed for a teleconference so I provided the needed update.  No big deal really but was not really necessary since the one sending the text knew I was not at work due to attending a funeral.  After the funeral on our way to the cemetery, I checked my fun and had received a text that informed me that my install for our main program was apparently removing a utility that we install for certain users.  This of course sent me into a tail spin.  Fortunately, later the test team was able to show that the main install did not remove any utilities.  Why hadn't they investigated this before informing me on this day of mourning?  Prior to this I was planning on going in to work to investigate this claim.  Now, my afternoon was clear so we decided to go out to dinner which was comp'd.  A bright end to a day of tragedy, loss and discouragement.  I thank God for the outcome of the day and will reflect on this experience for a long time to come.