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And so it's done


August 26, 2007 - 4:35 p.m.

My father died at 1:36am on Tuesday. Beside my stepmother, I was the last to see him, getting to the hospital nearly the moment he died, after driving straight up from here six and a half hours through heavy rain.

He was three weeks short of his 71st birthday.

My stepmother is pretty much a wreck, and I asked my half-brothers to keep an eye on her, since they stop by a couple of times a week. My stepmother handed off a lot of the preparation for his memorial service to us, though they had talked about what they wanted done (and not done) quite a bit in recent years. He was cremated and his ashes now rest next to mother, who died in 1968.

After the small service at the grave, we all went back to the house and sat around, talking about stuff. Mostly stuff from the past, though like all such gatherings, topics like gas mileage and cats and fishing crept in as the afternoon went on.

Finally, we left, leaving my stepmother alone to do whatever she needs to do. Not that she knows what those things are, but they're there for her to do... notify insurance companies and banks and such, wait for the inevitable calls from relatives and acquaintances. And listen to how quiet that house is now.

I feel somewhat older now.

We got home late Friday night, and Saturday there was a hell of a rainstorm, more like a small tropical storm, that took out our power when a large cherry tree up the road fell across some power lines and lay there, snapping and smoking, until the power company finally showed up to fix it several hours later. We had steak and macaroni salad out on the porch and talked about old stuff.

It's what you do.


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