Dad's Funeral: 1/30/2008

Everyone in my immediate family: viz. my kids and my wife, all planned to walk behind the caisson from the chapel to the burial site. As such, I was best served by renting our own limo to get us to the chapel and then from the grave site to the reception at the Portofino.

Here we all are [above] enjoying some not-so-quiet time together before getting to Arlington.


There was an honor guard as well as a band. As usual, please click on any photo to see a larger, higher resolution version.

I expected the band. What I didn't expect was the odd atmosphere it lent to both the funeral service and the funeral procession. Not something I can really describe. Definitely odd, though.


The caisson.


The march begins. The doughty lads you see to our immediate front are the pallbearers. You'll see them again in the video after I've processed it, as well as below.


I'm trying here to give an idea just how long this procession was (not including the caisson, those like us walking behind the caisson, and the long long line of limos and cars following us, which must have been quite long). I think that the walk through the cemetery, from the Old Post Chapel to the grave site, was about 1.5 miles.

Click on the above image to get a larger view.

The band marched at the head of the column, the honor guard following, then the caisson, then us. Then the cars and limos.


Here's a good view of the caisson as it turns a corner.


We approach the gravesite. Mom is already interred at the same site ... dad and she are essentially in the same plot, stacked one on top of the other.


The pallbearers head to the grave site itself. We follow close behind.

Here's a short video:



I didn't take a lot, as you can see. I took none at the grave site itself as you can imagine.

Here's a video of all of us blowing off some steam at Parney's after the funeral:


Link: sevenload.com

**** UPDATE 2/6/08 ****

A friend of dad's, Marc Enright, who was at the funeral has emailed some photos. He got some at the grave side, which I didn't of course, as well as some other angles.

Here they are:

Dad Remembered

The above video is a collection of all the film images I could find of dad from the 16mm films dad took as we were growing up. As you would expect, there are not many of them ... he spent most of his time on the other side of the camera.

The film seems to span about 10 years: 1955-1965 (or thereabouts).

I plan to do the same with mom, too ... though there's a lot more footage of her in those films, as you might expect.

OK, the music is sappy ... but the video is over 7 minutes long and I wanted something ... and while Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" would actually have fit perfectly (time-wise at least, if not in other ways), I didn't want to break any copyright laws.

Dad will be interred at Arlington Cemetery, this January 30, 2008. He will be given full military honors as appropriate to his rank: Rear Admiral. Services will begin at Ft. Myer Chapel (the Old Post Chapel) at 12:35 pm.

While I was at it I found some footage of our cousins and uncle Jim riding their horse in Oklahoma. From sheer embarrassement I omitted our own (viz.: Parney, Eric and my own) lame attempts at riding.

Here's what's left [there's no sound]: