The Day OF

Well, not even sure where to start today... I might have to write this in two parts... woke up today at 6 and took a shower, and got ready... I drove mom, dad, sarah, grandma and myself to the boat on peir 39. Glen, Donna and their kids met us here at grandma's house. we drove down to SF with little, issue, dropped off the family parked the truck, and met the family where there were a couple members of the honnor garud... This is where I started to breakdown, this was not gonna be good... the boat was really nice, and all the immidate family showed up, it was good to see everyone.

the boat headed out, it was cool, flat calm, the alkatraz swim was going on and the jaramia johnson (a WW2 ship) was making its anual trip up the bay, yes thats right it only goes places once a year.... and the alkatraz swim is only once a year. we made it out to the golden gat bridge, where the ashes were going to be spread. Dad said he had never seen weather so calm. the honnor gaurd played taps, unfolded and folded the flag, presented it to grandma. The neptune socity guide said a small prayer, we all joined hands while Russ lead us in a prayer, each of the kids scattered some of the ashes. we thrwed a carnation overboard, I took lots and lots of pictures. Like I said it was cold, but the weather was perfectly calm. as we headed back to the dock the captain said he only makes it out to the golden gate about 20% of the time, and cannot remember when it was that calm under the golden gate bridge....

But wait theres more... we all came home, after finding our way out of the city. we all had a little lunch, and got changed for the memorial service...

once at the memorial service is where It really started to get hard. The service was heald at the the chruches with the 3 huge crosses, its call neibors. once I got into the meeting place there was a DVD playing that had a picture of grandpa driving his boat in Canada, which I know was one of his happy places... I ended up having to go back out to the truck and happened to also have ears in my eyes. it was so hard.

i didn't truly loose it till chuck was up in front everyone, and lost it looked up and said Give me just a minute dad... at that moment the wind blew in through the only open window, and resteled the blinds which made a bunch of noise... it made me feel like he was there with us, took a LONG time after that for me to regain my composure.

all the people that talked had many nice things to say about grandpa, the san Leandro fire department was there, so far out of their area, just to pay their respects.

it was unbelievable... I will have to write more later in this post.