When we got there, he dropped me off at the terminal. I went inside and found a terminal to check in, but the man standing there looked at my ticket and said to go ahead to the clerk. I waited in line, then carried my suitcase up. She processed it and gave me my tickets. Then I hit the restroom before going to security. That was another long line, even though I was in the priority lane. Glad I went BEFORE I got in that line. After checking my pass port, I went to a line of carrels where I put my items in bins. There was one bin underneath, and when I pulled it out to fill it, another one took its place. Since there were 4 carrels in a row, other peoples bins got mixed in with mine. After being personally scanned, I had to determine which bins were mine. Some were obvious, but laptops look kind of alike.
Anyway, on to the gate. I just stood in line there until first class boarded, and I got on. We were seated kind of apart. The seat was too tall for me and my heels did not touch the floor. It was an hour till we were high in the sky and I could recline. Thankfully part of my snack was in the computer case. I ate the brown banana and some 96% dark chocolate. But then the stewardesses came around with boxes of snacks. I read the ingredients on each one. I ate about half. All were organic, but some had sugar or the vague 'natural flavors'. We were told we had to keep our masks on even while we ate (between bites). Ugh.
I had held together pretty well, but sometimes tears would fall. One stewardess asked me if something was wrong and I told her about my dad. She patted my shoulder and said she was so sorry. Then she told all the other stewardesses and they each made a point of coming to say something comforting. That did not help me hold it together. Five minutes before we landed, they wrote a message on a card and signed it, and wrote my new gate number. As I de-boarded, one handed me a baggie of extra water bottles and extra snacks. Truely first class service.
As per the stewardess' directions, I found the train to the next concourse and walked slowly to the new gate. I sat and waited until boarding started and realized I would be in the last to board. Fearing no place in overhead bins, I checked my carry-on and went to the restroom. Then I came back and stood in line. Finally we boarded. I was seated between two big men. I crossed my arms and did not touch anything. The one on my left talked to me off and on which made the trip shorter, although it was only an hour and a half.
When we landed in Richmond, I was going to take a pic, but forgot. I walked quickly to the public area where I met my father-in-law. He gave me a quick hug and we went to the baggage claim area. Amazingly, even though I checked my suitcase and carry-on at different times, they came out almost together and right near the front. So we were out in no time. I followed him to his car and he loaded the trunk. He programmed his gps for my dad's house and we left the lot. I tried making conversation, but it led to wrong turns so I became quiet.
When we got to the house, William was cleaning out the white car. Al unloaded my luggage and William took it in the house. We had a bit of conversation and Al went home. I talked to William and he showed me a pic of Dad in the nursing home bed (an 'after' pic). Faye came over and we hugged and talked. She and William said there was no food in the house, so I ate more of the nuts and chocolate that I brought for the plane. William went home to Karen. Faye and I wrestled with skpye on several computers until we were able to get all 5 of us in a group chat (including Kurt). We discussed the funeral and other arrangements. I made notes.
It got late and we ended the call. I got ready for bed. Patrick wanted to talk a little. Then I laid down and tried to sleep in Dad's bed. Conditions were not ideal. Patrick was walking around. I was cold, and then hot, off and on. But I did sleep for some chunk of time so it was better than the night before.
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Daylight came in around the blinds. My body did not know what time it was. It wasn't on Utah time or on EST. Finally I got up. I re-did the sheet and relized that there was a plastic sheet under it. I took that off and put more blankets on the bed. I made a thicker knee pillow. I cleared off part of the dresser and put the clothes from my suitcase there. I stacked up the walker, rollater, and rolling chair to make room to walk around. I washed up and got dressed and put on vitamin patches. I opened two windows. They were incredibly dirty so I got out the vacuum and cleaned out spider webs and such. I also wiped them with a cloth.
Patrick was asleep in the den. I looked through the fridge and found eggs, carrots, yogurt and apples. In the freezer was chicken, casseroles, corn, broccoli, etc. I ate a carrot. I looked through the food cabinet. I read all the labels and pulled the good ones to the front. There was coconut milk and coconut water and packets of tuna. I made some fermented coconut milk and started a shopping list.
I checked e-mail. Faye arrived at 9:30. We went through lock boxes looking for Dad's birth certificate so we could fill in information for the funeral home. We also picked out pants and shirt for him to wear. We looked at pics of him. I messaged her some from my phone. She printed them out on Dad's printer. Finally we got to the funeral home and it looked deserted. Faye called and they said to come in. We went in and a man greeted us, but turned us over to the female director. She discussed the forms to be certain we had them correctly filled out. Faye noticed that we didn't bring a tie and the director asked about a jacket. I thought Dad should be dressed more formally than less formally so Faye went back to the house for a jacket and tie. But it took a long time because she couldn't decide. So she brought several of each and we decided on the black suit and a subdued patterned tie.
We finished up at the home and went back to Dad's house. She spoke to the local pastor on the phone from her car. He offered to call the pastor in PA where Dad will be buried. Then we went to Subway so she could buy lunch. On the way back we stopped at the bank for me to cash a check, but I could not find the check, so we went to the house. She ate her sandwich while I ate casserole, tuna, and we split an apple.
I cleared the messages on Dad's home phone, taking note of those that seemed important. Faye called to cancel his prescriptions. She tried to cancel the credit card as well, but got the runaround and then silence. The pastor called to say that the funeral would be at 11, so I messaged a bunch of people to let them know. She called the funeral home in PA to arrange for the casket and flowers. The home wrote an obituary and sent it to Faye for approval. I read online about identity theft and we deleted a bunch of middle names, maiden names and even the last names of the survivors.
She went home, and I put a piece of chicken and some water in a pot on the stove. When it was hot, I poured the water over casserole to heat it, and put chicken on top. I sat down at my laptop to eat. A podcast started to play, but I couldn't tell which window it was coming from. A disant cousin messaged me that the cemetary director had some questions, so I called the director. When he heard which funeral home was doing the service, he said they would handle everything and not to worry.
Chris messaged me, then called. I muted the podcast to talk to him. Faye called, too. She let me know that she found the will and we discussed hotel arrangements. I called Chris back. We talked about him coming up. He was willing to stay two weeks, but then all my plants would die. After hanging up, I ate some frozen blueberries and listened to the podcast. I paused it to type this blog post. Patrick came home from work. I asked him to vaccuum and he did. Then I posted this write-up and got ready for bed.
* These ducks were in the parking lot at Subway. *
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