Some years ago, Umpa, my wife’s father passed away. It was really the first time for our family that a significant member passed. My mother and father had died some years earlier but they were not in California. Mom died in Wichita and my father died in Wyoming while staying with my sister Mary. No matter, this was a major event in our family. He was cremated and we planned for a memorial service to be held in Turlock at the Allen Mortuary. Umpa was a veteran of World War II so we wanted to have him receive full military honors. There is a local organization of veterans who volunteer for these kinds of things and we made arrangements for them to be at the service. The day came. We had programs made for the event. His remains were up front in an urn. There was a large picture of Umpa and several of his Grandchildren and myself got up and said a few words about him. The audience included our family, which also included his Great Grandchildren. I am going to focus on two of them. Hannah and Michael. They were two of my daughter Marti’s children. Hannah was almost 3 and Michael was almost 4. I know that most of us hadn’t attended many funerals and this was a first for Hannah and Michael. The Honor Guard was present in full battle array. Including Flags and Rifles. One of the men was calling out the orders. It was raining outside so none of us went outside. The Honor Guard did march outside and we heard the 21-gun salute. Frankly, it was a bit unsettling but we knew what was going on. Not so much for Hannah and Michael.
The service ended and we all went back to our house for the wake. We were all there sharing stories about Umpa and enjoying each other. It was a good day. After dinner Marti put Hannah and Michael to bed. While she was bedding them down for the night, she asked them if something was wrong. Things didn’t seem right with them. She probed a bit more. You never know what is swirling around in their minds. It turns out that they thought Umpa was outside, and that he was given a head start, and guys in the Honor Guard had shot him. They had been carrying that thought around all day long. Marti was mortified. She quickly told them that that simply didn’t happen. That Umpa was already dead at the time of the service and that we were just there to talk about him and remember him. Clearly you cannot cover all the bases and in this case for at least 8 or 9 hours both Hannah and Michael believed that Umpa was gunned down outside the mortuary. Of course, we laugh about it today. Hannah is 19 and Michael is 21. The air is clear now and they understand all about cremation and that everything was kosher that day. May Umpa rest in peace.
