Closure

Pop was laid to rest on Thursday morning.

There was no wake, and no indoor gathering at a funeral home.  We just met at the cemetery, and had the service outside.

I was able to take three days of bereavement leave, Wednesday through Friday, to be with Dave, and to help out in any way that I could.

On Monday,we had a previously scheduled vacation day.   We stopped and bought a shirt and tie, and took Pop's suit to the funeral home, which we had been storing here for this occasion.

We also made sure that there would be flowers.  

Thank goodness we did, as it turned out.  It would have been pretty sad without them, as there was only one other arrangement sent from Pop's family back in Virginia.

Dave also asked them about a flag on the coffin, and an honor guard for the burial. 

As it turned out, when Mom made all of the arrangements back in 2011, the military honor ceremony was part of it.

I was very happy to be the one to prompt Dave to ask these questions (the flowers and the honor guard), as they were things no one else had thought about.

At one point Mike had refused the honor guard, and never told us why....Fortunately, he didn't have a say after all!

As anticipated, not many people came.  Aside from we six, there were three others present.

It was a beautiful morning, with low humidity, and moderate temperatures, and it was nice and sunny.  Everyone distanced and wore masks, except the few of us who were seated under the tent out of the sun. 

Someone sat right next to me, but we both kept our masks on, despite our tears.

There was supposed to be a family dinner that night, but the brothers backed out of it, so I suggested we gather for breakfast on Friday.  

My family's culture is vastly different from the Bowens.  I could not imagine that these men would only see each other at the cemetery, and then go their separate ways, without another word in person, after burying their FATHER.

Thankfully, that idea was met with acceptance, so we gathered at the courtyard of Larry's hotel at 8am on Friday morning, and Mike and his wife brought carry out breakfast from Cracker Barrel.

Once again, we had perfect weather for our picnic, and we bade one another farewell by 9 am.  It was better than nothing.

After saying good bye, Dave and I headed down to the Arbuckle Mountains area of Oklahoma in hopes of finding some peace in nature.

We went to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, and were there by a little after10 am.  

We had hoped that it would not be crowded, being a week day, and being early in the day, but we were wrong.

Be that as it may, we found that the hiking trails were easy, and that the woods and waters were beautiful.  

We hiked a little over two miles, and were able to spend a lot of time away from people, but were confronted a few times by big groups of hikers, mostly kids, who wore no masks at all.

Sigh.

It was getting a little hot by the time we got back to the car, and it was humid from all of the trees and water, but, all in all, it was perfect.

It was such a pretty place.... and as we were leaving, two deer, and their spotted fawns, came out of the forest to check us out.  THAT was pretty cool.  

I can't wait for out next opportunity to go back down there.

There's also another park down there, right near where we were, called Turner Falls.  I have wanted to visit there for years.  Maybe next time, we will go there.

Back on our vacation day,  before we went to the funeral home with the clothes and questions, we had gone out to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

Unfortunately, that day, it was too hot to get out of the car, but we drove through the desolate landscape, and saw one lone buffalo.  

The refuge is home to herds of buffalo, wild long horn cattle (not sure how they became wild), and elk, and also has a prairie dog town, and lots of other flora and fauna.   

The vast majority of the acreage is desolate, though.... look up pictures on line, and you will see what I mean.  

We've done well lately, with making the road trips it takes to get out in nature.  Unfortunately, there is not really anything close to town, and the one nature preserve here in town is always inundated with people..

Our moderate weather is continuing.  We really have been fortunate this summer.

One of my cucumber vines is "done," and the other one is still healthy and making flowers, but it has no more fruit on it at the moment.  

The yellow cherry tomatoes are prolific, but they aren't growing or ripening, despite fertilizing them, and being sure to water every evening.  The plant is all leggy and spindly now.

I think I got a lot more out of my plants than I would have if we had been subjected to a "normal Oklahoma summer."

Dave's task for the coming week is to check in with the memory care center.  

They were to have an auction of Pop's belongings (TV, furniture), proceeds to go to the Alzheimer's Foundation, and we are to get what's left out of the room (HOPEFULLY just clothing, bed linens, nick knacks), before they charge the estate for another month.

If there is more left over than we can handle, we should be able to contact a charity to come pick stuff up.

One last step to full closure.

On that note, I am off to start my day.  Breakfast, then maybe cleaning out a closet.... Dave will mow the back yard again.  

Back to the workday grind tomorrow, after only working one day last week. Ugh.