Safely home and profoundly thankful.

I returned from South Carolina Saturday evening.  The funeral for my father was not only extremely devout, the way that he would have wanted it to be, but also the vast majority of his family was there.  After the funeral two of my sons and his eldest son formed an honor guard and presented my mother with the American flag in honor of my father's service in the Air Force.  Another of my brothers played Taps on his trumpet.  My dad would have warred with his humble self and the justified pride he felt at seeing his progeny thus displayed.

After that bit of ceremony was over a good time was had by all celebrating the life of a man who started out as an orphan, carried a desire for a large family, and managed to attain not only his dream but to accomplish all that and pass on his deep and abiding faith in God.
And so we all return to our lives saddened because we personally miss the man who raised us and set us on the courses that we follow today and yet so much more because he was the man that he was.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.  AMEN.