Funeral Day

I woke up around 6 AM and was ready to go around 8. I ran into a snag when I called a cab and was told that only Rosemont cab drivers can pick up in Rosemont. So I asked the front desk to call me a cab. It arrived on 5 minutes and got me to the funeral home.

My uncle looked diminished somehow. My aunt said that he had lost a lot of weight. Or maybe it was just because he was dead and not moving.

No one showed up to the visitation for the first hour, and we were wondering if anyone would show up at all. But at 10, people started pouring in. They weren't enforsing 10 people or less strictly because I'm sure at some point, there were more than 10 people.

Then we went to the church for the funeral. My aunt was able to walk down the aisle using her walker, and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to do that. I felt like a fish out of water because it was a Catholic funeral mass, and I'm not Catholic and everyone else was. My mom had to tell me to take my aunt's hand at one point, which didn't seem very COVID-friendly. Anyway, we got through it and was able to see him buried, which I don't think that they used to do.

We gathered back at the house for lunch. Most of them ordered Italian beef, and I asked for a hot dog, not realizing that it wouldn't be enough food. My uncle's nephew, who's a commercial pilot, and a friend of my aunt was there, and we wound up talking plane crashes, which is a subject that I actually know something about. My mom told the pilot that I was into plane crashes when I was younger, and he quipped, "So that's why you took the train!" I laughed.

The pilot and my aunt's friend left, and my aunt promptly fell asleep on the couch. My mom decided to take me back to the hotel. I lay down for a little while...and slept straight through until morning.

Home Again, Home Again

I woke up around 3 AM. I didn't bother getting into my pajamas but turned off the lights. I woke up at a quarter to seven, and my alarm was set for seven, so I got up.

Threw myself together and went down to the lobby for breakfast. I had been jonesing for a hot breakfast, but all they had was cereal and yogurt. I grabbed cereal and yogurt. I was in the elevator when I realized that I didn't have milk for the cereal. I ate it dry. I'm still hungry, so I think that I'll have the fried chicken that I didn't have last night. I did.

I tried to lie down for a little while, but I couldn't sleep. Mom called and said that she was on the way to pick me up. I checked out of the hotel. By the way, I now love the Hampton Inn. Great beds and shower controls on the opposite side from the shower. After I checked out, Mom called again to ask me to take a cab because the air was low in one of her tires. So I called the front desk to let me in and it rang and rang, but eventually they let me in and called a cab. I didn't like the cab driver as much as the one from the day before--he didn't help with my luggage--but he got me there. Then Mom and I ventured out on search of a tire place. They put air in the tires and told her to come back if the tires lost air again. We picked up some food at a local hamburger joint.

I ate an enormous gyros and onion rings and decided that I would never eat again. Then Mom and Auntie asked me to carry some stuff down to the basement and to the trash. Mom and I ran my aunt's car for a while. (She's unable to drive now. Talk about limiting.) I wrote down the contact info for a couple of hearing aid places that carry my mom's brand of hearing aids. We both admitted that we couldn't understand the homily during the funeral.

Mom was worried that I'd starve on the train ride back, so we picked up some strawberry-cheese bites. It began to seriously snow. When we went to the commuter rail station, Mom didn't want to leave me there in the snow, but there wasn't much choice. I went into the shelter, but there was a bunch of guys smoking something--cigarettes? pot?--and a guy sleeping. When a train went by in the opposite direction, I went outside. One of the guys came out of the shelter to see if I was okay. I said that I was fine, but I didn't want to miss the train.

The train finally came. It was going slow because of the snow, but I had allowed plenty of time. I caught the Amtrak train.

The train ride was epic. I set an alarm and closed my eyes for a while, but couldn't fall asleep. Partway through, the power went out. We just had emergency lighting. And no flushing toilets. When we got to Bloomington-Normal, they fiddled with the lights and got them back on, which was a good thing because the doors were open, and it was getting cold. But then a woman who was either drunk or having a mental health emergency started shouting. An Amtrak guy and two policemen tried to get her to leave the train. Eventually she left under her own steam. At that point, the train was a half-hour late.

Got off in Lincoln. While I was walking to my car, it started to rain cold drops. Of course it did. I had an umbrella in my purse, but I didn't want to stop to fish it out, so I trudged along.

Got home. Mimi, who had been hiding from the pet sitter, came trotting in at the sound of my voice. I promptly fed the girls. I made myself some oatmeal. Now I'm planning to seriously crash.

It always amazes me that I could spend the afternoon in my aunt's house in the Chicago area and now be home in Lincoln. That part of travel never gets old.