Hazel Put to Rest

Hazel was laid out at Emerson's Funeral Home and Ambulance Service. (I guess we know what happens to the ones for whom the ambulance is too late.) Her coffin sat in the place were My Beloved's mother's had been 8 months before. It was a simple affair. Visitation started at 9:30 and at 10:45 we moved to the cemetery where Hazel's minister performed a service. In the summer months funeral services are held early due to the heat. The little shelter they'd erected just barely shaded those in attendance and even at that hour the minister had to dab his forehead with a folded white handkerchief while he delivered his eulogy. I've been to a lot of wakes and visitations but rarely have I attended a funeral service that wasn't either Catholic or Quaker. I felt the lack of formal prayer and bible passages. The entire service consisted of the minister's eulogy. A nice man really. Hazel liked him and chose him for this duty. Poor fellow wasted rather a lot of breath exhorting us to find salvation through Jesus though. Hazel would have known this was a wasted effort but she'd have been too nice to point it out. The next day we revisited the grave site on our own and found our wilted roses from the garden at her grave. We never had the pleasure of showing Hazel our little house. I think she would have appreciated the home grown bouquet. I found the sight of her brother Alvis' grave stone spattered with the dirt from her grave touching although I never knew Alvis.