Funereal thoughts

This is the second funeral I've played organ for since I've been here in Wilkes-Barre. The lady today was obviously a lovely person and I heard thoughts expressed that maybe it was just her time to go, she'd led a good life, etc. But when I read the program, I noted that she was 64. Whoa! That's a tad young to be moving on, don't you think? This hit a little too close to home.

One trend I notice here is that in both funerals I've played for, a son-in-law has delivered the eulogy. (Actually I've seen it done once in Texas too.) It gave me pause. A long pause, in fact. And so I mused on the way home about what kind of eulogy ZT, NL or DS would provide for me. My first thought was that whatever they would contain, they would be diverse. If you know my sons-in-law, this goes without saying. My second thought was that I love my sons-in-law very much and it amused me to think of what they would come up with. My third thought was that ZT has seniority rights. He's been around the longest. I can envision several scenarios of what might happen if the job were assigned to ZT. A considerable part of his charm is that I wouldn't lay money on any of those scenarios being close to what he would actually do.

The first funeral I played for here, the son-in-law remembered that his mother-in-law had given him a rock from Elvis's driveway for a present. That got a big laugh. The son-in-law today compared his mother-in-law to the Gestapo, but in a nice way. He also remembered her years as a fan of professional wrestling. He didn't get quite as many yucks but maybe it was his delivery.

So to my sons-in-law out there, be saving up some good stories. Who knows? You may get a golden opportunity to do some stand-up comedy at my passing.