tribute

my dad spoke at my grandpa’s memorial.
he read from an index card. (afterward we did a bible reading, but i think what dad had on the index card is all that was needed.)



“If the magnitude of the tribute was proportional to the love we have for them and the loss we feel. . .
then none of us would have been able to afford the price of the tickets needed to be able to attend.”



i imagine that if you could be present for the invention of something like appreciation- to see it created, tooled, used and then defined, it might have felt similar. seems short to read it now, but when dad read it aloud, time slowed and the words blanketed everyone present. oscillations of love, gratitude, truth, and bereavement synced and were interpreted through language and presence.




(on the other side of the card was grandpa’s plan for his service)


Dad’s plan would have had some of us. . . I won’t say who. . . quietly sneak up here a few nights ago with the box and a posthole digger. . .and that would have been it.



(i’m glad we had the memorial, even if it would’ve embarrassed grandpa)