Friday, February 24, 2006

Pastor's Funeral/Yawn Story

First, here's the yawn story. Not that fun to write. It was a job. But really, two cops are retiring in what we call "out in the county". Campbell County is shaped somewhat like an upside down funnel. We live in the north end. Directly across the river is Cincinnati. As the funnel travels south and broadens it goes from gritty urban to urban quickly to suburban and very quickly to rural. About 15 miles south you are in stereotypical Kentucky setting. Very beautiful, but very country. The county is bit bipolar. There are even two Campbell County Courthouses. One about 20 blocks from me and another about 10 miles south because they're not coming up here and I'll be damned if I'm driving "out to the county". It offers a heck of a contrast. It was difficult to get use to from the vast expanse of suburb that I grew up in.

I really shouldn't call it a yawn story. It's the culmination of two officer's careers. I picture then clipping the article and stowing it away in some scrap book - maybe hanging it up in a paneled den. Who knows? 30 years from now their grown grandkids will flip through it at their funeral and maybe learn something about grandpa that they didn't know.

I won't go to indepth on Pastor Hungler's funeral. I'm too tired to do it justice. It was large. People traveled from around the country. Roman collars everywhere. If you read my second every newspaper article from a couple years ago here, you'd remember he was into ecumenicalism. What's ecumenicalism? So they worked that in.

It followed the traditional liturgy. However, the old testament was read by a redheaded rabbi in Hebrew, a Catholic priest read the gospel, a Lutheran pastor gave the sermon/eulogy, an Iranian accented Bahai priest (?) read a blessing of the dead, and a southern Indiana Lutheran bishop consecrated the sacrement.

The speakers were very good. If it can be said, it wsa the best funeral I'd been to. Meaning that it best reconciled those assembled to an unexpected and premature death. Four year old Daugher #2 asked why he was wearing his glasses in the casket. Good question. They weren't to help him see, but to us to see him as we remembered him.

Stay You.
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