Bonnie's Visitation Before Her Funeral

My sister Bonnie’s funeral visitation was yesterday at Mayes Ward. Here are some afterthoughts: They say Funerals are for the living. I think so too. It is form of acceptance and transition and your friends and loved ones help you with that transition. Here is a Bonnie experience that I thought was interesting. She was at Woolco in Belmont Hills Shopping Cener in a cashier’s line to buy something for her many pets, I forgot what. Behind her in line was a man buying a snake. In front of her was a person buying mice. As people in line do, talk, the two people in front and behind her got into a heated argument. One wanted to kill the snake and the other wanted mice for his snake to eat. Bonnie, between hem, remain non-expressive. Bonnie looked very good. It was a big turnout of kin on both sides, our Daddy’s side (Hunters) and our Mama’s side (Pettys). Also, a lot of friends, neighbors, ex-neighbors, and fellow church members were there. And they were mostly local, in Cobb County. As I told one cousin and his wife entering, “This is the only room in Cobb county that everyone here has a southern accent.” Which was a stretch. Anna walked up to me and pointed at a tall slim man whose head was higher up in the air than anyone else. She said, “Who is that man?” I did not recognize him. She said he said, “Hello Anna, sorry about your loss.” I had no idea. When we were looking at him he caught us looking. The tall fellow walked up to me and said, “I’m sorry about Bonnie, Eddie.” I was just about to ask his name, and he reminded me he came over to Bonnie’s and Frances’ house and helped me rearrange some heavy furniture so Bonnie could watch TV, she was so weak then. He and his wife belong to the same church as Frances and Bonnie. In one cluster of cousins was a late drunk uncle story. On the other side of the room with another cluster of cousins told another same drunk uncle, same event, with only a few changes. One sweet elderly lady, age 95, friend and Frances’ ex-coworker at the bank was very pleased to see me. She reads my Chicken-fat.com blog every day. By the way, she Is still driving. After my last wreck my driving has been curtailed. Our ex-neighbors kids that we lived next door to us were there. When we lived next door there were six kids. Now they are three elderly gray-headed bearded people. I couldn’t help from remembering the time me visited them in this same Mayes Ward building. There mother died. We were the only visitors. It was untimely for a visitation, it was also the same day for a giant sporting event, like World Series or maybe Super Bowl. I forgot which. The bad thing is they were hard workers in their church. Another hard worker in the same church held a big sports party the time of her visitation. All that would have gone to the visitation chose instead to rub elbow with the leaders of their church watching sports on TV. Our grandson attended his second funeral. He did not take off his mask, but his eyes were big and amazed.