Grampa's Funeral

First of all, we want to thank Sue for another awesome hotel experience. Thanks for helping us with our room reservations and with the great rates. We were very comfortable, the breakfasts were awesome and the staff was among the best we’ve ever seen. They were very friendly people who even went to far as to make our waffles, complete with warmed butter. They also gave Matt a USB computer cord from their graveyard of lost and found items.

Now for the funeral post.

None of us really knew what to expect for the funeral/memorial service because we were a little left out of the planning process. It was a little hard for Mom because she wanted input but didn’t want to step on toes. We found out that one of Grandpa’s old friends, who is a minister, wanted to conduct and speak at the funeral. We thought that would be fine, but wondered about how we might be able to be involved. When we called Maryanne Sunday morning, she was all worried because she couldn’t get a hold of him. He is 88 years old and drove himself all the way from Billings, Montana. She said he had really aged since she last saw him and he seemed a little senile and disoriented. Oh yeah, and he’s almost totally deaf. Needless to say, we were a little more concerned about the service and thought we could be in for a very interesting experience. Should this surprise us by now? Somehow she found him while we were at church. We went to the whole block of church meetings in the ward that the Chattertons would be in. It turned out being a VERY good thing we did. They had an awesome ward. The people were so nice and helpful. When they found out we were here for a funeral the Relief Society President gave us her name and number and told us to call her if we needed anything, including a meal or a place to go. After church we went to Maryanne’s to visit and talk about the funeral. We met the minister, A.L. Fredricks. He was a really nice guy and wanted us to participate in anyway we wanted. He was very sensitive to how we hoped it would go.

It was decided that Matt would give the family prayer at the closing of the casket, Amy would do the Life Sketch or Eulogy, Mom would give personal memories of her dad, and Dad would do the same plus offer a little spiritual uplift. Mr. Fredricks would conclude the services with a sermon. There was no music mentioned and we found out that the mortuary didn’t have a piano or organ. (We were going to bring Annie out to play, but had already learned about the lack of musical instruments). Dad decided to call this R.S. President and ask if anyone in the ward might be able to do a musical number acapella for us. She said that she sings at funerals and would be honored and happy to do it and got a friend lined up to sing with her. We told her that Grandpa’s favorite song was “How Great Thou Art” and she said that that was one of the songs she does often. We felt pretty good about our plans and prepared a little for our parts. Nick’s children, Laura and Nick, came over and Matt and I got to meet some first cousins for the first time in our lives. Laura is married with two adorable little boys. We went out for pizza and really enjoyed getting to know everyone better. It’s been 7 years since Mom’s brother Nick passed away. He would be very proud of his kids. They are great.

Maryanne’s son John was also with us along with her friend, Karen. Karen was Grandpa’s dental assistant for years. We were an odd sort of group, but surprisingly had a great time and bonded in an interesting sort of way.

Monday morning we got to the mortuary at about 10:00 for the viewing. Grandpa looked pretty good, considering everything. He looked so thin and frail, but looked like him. Viewings are always pretty sad. It was hard on Mom and Maryanne was really grieving.

It’s really hard to know that it will be the last time on earth you will see someone you love. Matt gave a sweet prayer and the casket was closed. Five minutes later Al started the funeral and I was first up. I am usually such a blubbering fool at funerals; can’t sing the songs and would never dream I’d be able to ever speak. I composed myself pretty well and was able to get through his life sketch pretty well. Mom did a great job talking about Grandpa and shared lots of cute stories and memories about him. She was composed and able to do really well. Dad gave some nice memories and said a lot of really nice things about him and, of course, added some typical Dad humor. He mentioned how he was the “king of puns” and he would miss him. Al’s comments were very good and the timing was perfect.

The two women got up and sang “How Great Thou Art” to close the meeting and it was just beautiful. We all appreciated it so much and Maryanne was really touched with their kindness.

(Dad being Dad)

Then we drove about 25 minutes to the cemetery. He was buried in Eagle Point National Cemetery for veterans, with Military Honors. (He had served in the Navy during World War II.) He had a flag draped over his casket and several servicemen performed a really beautiful ceremony with so much respect and reverence. They saluted his casket and folded the flag and presented it to Maryanne. Taps was played and it was finished.






We drove up to his grave and Dad dedicated it.

We went to the grocery store and bought sandwich fixings, salads, chips, cookies and drinks for everybody and went to Maryanne’s for the rest of the day. We had a good time visiting. We even went through some of Grandpa’s belongings. Maryanne wanted us to have some things. We found his High School Diploma from 1934. Maryanne got out some really nice shoes that were hardly worn and they fit Matt perfectly. We also each took one of Grandpa’s hats home. As we were going up to our room we looked around the elevator and noticed that all four of us had our hats on. It gave us a good laugh. The laughing continued as Matt looked in the mirror and realized he was in a horizontal striped sweater. Soon we had a creepy visitor in our room!