In the middle of Uncle Dewey's children planning the burial of their Mom, Peaches, Uncle Dewey forgot that he and all his remaining siblings gave Mom and Frank 2 plots (Block 1 and plot 5 & 6) in the family cemetery. They notified us that he would be buried in plot 6 next to my mom, Bama. Well, there is a double head stone sitting on plot 5 and 6, it is already to go when Frank passes. Talk about weird.... they never mentioned the fact that there was a headstone there. Wow, Janice spoke with them and they said that is what their Dad wanted. Frank became upset, and started frantically digging in his papers looking for the notary forms that he'd saved from the transfer to him and mom. Note, this is Monday night, and the funeral is scheduled for Wednesday. She and Harry III agreed to meet and the city office first thing Tuesday morning. Frank was successful in locating his notarized paper work. WHEW.
We got up and around first thing Tuesday and met Harry III and Elaine at the City offices about 9 am. The city verified that all the paperwork on their part showed it was still Mom and Frank's plots, and that there were none of the original Sneed places remaining. Long story short, Harry III purchased some additional plots for Harry and Peaches and for some of his family. All worked out great, but talk about some drama. Whew
When Dad passed, I promised him I would take care of Stella (his dog) until she died, and then I'd bury her in the urn on his little "condo" head stone. I took her with me on the trip. I stopped at the hardware store, asking for resin. My thought was to put the ashes in the urn, then pour resin on top, thinking it would seal them from water. Well, they didn't have any, and they sent me to Sherwin and Williams. They didn't have any either, but they said polyurethane would do it. I got a quart, an opener, and a set of plastic gloves (in case of dribbles) and put them in my car. Dads family is also buried in the same cemetery. I'll do it after they bury Peaches.
Hate the way this bounces around, but I need to do some back story coverage. I have cutaneous T cell lymphoma, which is, by the way, pretty much under control. I was recently diagnosed with Lupus and neuropathy. (That will have to be a completely different post) The meds I started taking have caused me to have dizzy spells. The first was the worst, causing me to fall and requiring a trip to the ER. Even on a different med, I continued to have falls from dizzy spells. My insurance company pretty much forced me to wear a fall detector. It detects falls, and uses GPS and cellular to contact emergeny help if I fall. This service deserves another independent post, but it will have to wait. Anyway, it is overly sensitive. It will go off over nothing. When it detects a problem, it plays a very loud announcement saying "We have detected a fall. You are being connected with the emergency call center)". That is 90% accurate in the verbage.
Due to so many fake falls, I wanted to turn it off during the funeral. I call them just before leaving Franks house, and it took 4 different attempts to turn it off. Those four attempts were with the call center on line telling me how to do the buttons. About 15 minutes later, the unit was actually turned off. As it turns off, it says "POWERING OFF". The people online confirmed they heard it say that, and that no lights were flashing. They have to be told when it is turned off, cause not being within cell range after a couple of hours will cause an alarm.... so does it being in the charger for too long. That is their way of making sure you wear the device. Anyway.... Everything was set for the unit to be off for a minimum of 6 hours. Off we go to the funeral.
About 15 mins into the service, my nephew Jeff and I were sitting next to each other, and we heard a soft harp strum.....sorta a new age type of sound, like someone took their finger and ran it across all the strings of a harp. It was very soft..... very VERY soft. This was going on for about 5 mins and Jeff says it is coming from my phone. I pull my purse out and look, and show him my phone is turned off. I put my purse back on the back of the chair in front of me. Here comes the harp sound again. We think it is the kid in front of me. We start to speak to him about turning it off, when I move my purse so I can lean close to his ear. and we realize the sound is coming from my purse. I look and that DAMNED fall detector is blinking pink and purple lights..., which I have never before seen. Terrified more than embarrassed that an ambulance could have been dispatched to my location, I grab my purse and leave the funeral. In the hall, one of the church deacons comes after me and asks if I need help. I told him I had to leave because I had a device that was used for emergency situations, and it was sounding off in error, and I needed to stop it. I went outside and called the care center from my cell phone.
Well, they did show that I would be off line for hours, they'd had no alerts, but they had never heard of the pink and purple lights nor the harp sound. I had not turned it on or anything else, so I let them listen to it. They told me to touch it like I was turning it off again, and when I did, it said "Powering on". The device was not even turned on. They "think" it was maybe trying to link up to wifi...?????? Well, that was Wednesday, and I decided to wait until I was home to investigate. That will be my first call Monday.
I got that taken care of, leaving the unit in the car and getting a guarantee that no one would dispatch on my locations even if they get an alarm. Embarrassed, I went back into the funeral,
It was really quiet after that. We left the funeral and headed for the cemetery. After they had finished the burial program, Janice and I trudged across the cemetery to the site of my Dad's crypt. I carefully put on the gloves, open the can of polyurethane, and poured Stella's ashes into her urn. Then as I started pouring the polyurethane into the vase, is began running out the bottom of the urn. It was running everywhere. Panic set in. I turned to Janice, and asked her for some tissues. She had none, I asked her for anything, and she had nothing. I was wearing slacks. She had on a dress.
There was polyurethane running all over Dad's $3,000 or so headstone. I demanded her underwear. She protested, saying they were brand new. Hell, I knew that, I was with her when she bought them. I stood my ground (well, Dad's ground) and demanded she give them to me or she could walk home. She finally started getting them off. As she hoisted her skirt, Uncle Willie and Aunt Pat drive by waving. She pulled a quickie, and made it look like she was just fanning herself with her skirt. Looking around, she sees another car approaching.... it was Kylee. We both wave, then it was just us and the grave. She pulled off her panties.... I checked to make sure they were clean (that's sorta a joke... but not really) and began spreading the polyurethane, attempting to get it off the base and onto the ground.
OMG... what a fiasco. I did manage to get the largest part of it off, and it appeared to stop running out of the vase. The base will be different than the rest of the headstone, but whatever...... I proceeded to tape aluminum foil over the top of the urn. It was recommended that I cover it to keep it dry for a few days, or weeks, and to make sure no water got into it. Using foil would allow it to dry out as compared to plastic which would prohibit it. Frank has promised to remove the foil the next time he goes out to visit Mom's grave.
That was the majority of drama, except for a small incident involving Janice and the bathroom in Holdenville. I will not post that. BUT.... here is a picture of her fishing there....
Here is our selfie.....
Yes it was windy, and hair was blowing in my mouth.
That is it for now. I have decided I am going to go back and blog some fun memories that Janice and I remembered while in Oklahoma. My Dad is where the two of us got our warped sense of humor. He would have been rolling in heaven laughing at the two of us trying to bury his beloved Stella. Oh my..... he was such a fun Dad.
Later......
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