Can I perform the funeral?

8/30/08 Saturday
There’s much on my mind. As you can expect my thoughts are on Eileen and with her family. The farmer’s market went well this morning though we were a little late getting there. It didn’t take long to sell out of the blackeyed peas. I took my woodcarving stuff and carved for the first time in a year or so. It was relaxing or at least meditative. Afterwards Cherie and I went to the Thai restaurant we both like so much and then came home.

Cherie went to check our mailbox in Stanton and I crashed out as I often do in the afternoon. She woke me up on her return to let me know that we received a surprise in the mail. It was a fair sized check that we finally got from the oil company after we did all the work that Virginia, the executrix of the estate, was supposed to do. She was happy to take over twenty five hundred dollars out of the estate as her fee when she pretty much didn’t do anything but left it up to us.

With the check we decided we could afford to donate five hundred dollars to Eileen’s funeral so I called her daughter, Suzie, to let her know. We talked for quite a long time as she explained all that was going on. She didn’t want to stop talking and I think she was grateful just to have someone to talk to that was a bit saner than some others around there.

In the course of conversation she talked about how hard it was to find a preacher to do the funeral. Her boyfriends foster father will do it for free and that’s a big help. When Suzie learned that I had been a pastor said “Oh, I wish you could be here. Of all the people I know you’d be the best one to do the funeral. We know you loved her and you know so much about her”. That really got too me. I would so much be honored to be able to say goodbye to Eileen that way and feel that it would be a privilege to do so. I brought this up with Cherie and we discussed the possibility. Itold her that if God wanted me to do so He would make a way. I had her check the flights available to get an idea of what it would take. It’s about four hundred dollars each way plus food and expenses. I can stay with friends no problem. Still thinking. Tell me what you think.