After Christmas (part 2)

If you missed my first post about the day after Christmas, you can read it here.

So Thursday afternoon was filled with calling my brother to tell him that Dad was gone. Going to Dad’s house to clean up some and then talking with family about details with Dad.

My brother got into town in the middle of the night, I tried to sleep for a couple hours before going to get him.

Friday was very busy, but I’m thankful that my Uncle Brad and cousin Maddie were at Granny’s to hang out with the boys and play games with them. Rob and I went back over to Dad’s as Justin and I had to start making plans for Dad’s service. While others prefer traditional or Asian funerals, we opted for cremation services. Originally, I had wanted to have a viewing before Dad’s cremation services. Long story short, we ended up not having a viewing because Dad died out of town and it would have cost a lot of money to transport him here, etc. Shortly after that decision we found out that the cremation services could take awhile because of all the paperwork. We made the decision that having his ashes at the service was just a symbolic thing that it wasn’t necessary.

We forged ahead with plans for the service to be Monday. We were able to find a church to have it, which ended up being St. Paul’s Methodist Church. This is my Granny’s church. The church where I grew up didn’t have a preacher available as they were on vacation. Thanks a LOT, Richland Hills Methodist Church! But it actually worked out better. Pastor Keith from St. Paul’s was so awesome and just so nice. He offered up the entire church for that day.

The service was great. I found 2 verses bookmarked in Dad’s bible: John 6:35-40 and Psalms 96: 1-6 were read by the Associate pastor. A short bio was given by Pastor Keith. Then, Uncle Ed and Drew spoke. God, spoke to me and gave me the strength to stand up and speak. I gave an introduction into the short slideshow that we were about to watch. You can read what I said here.

After the slideshow we opened up the floor to anyone else that wanted to speak, so Rob got up and spoke. After the service was over we commenced in the fellowship hall where finger foods were served and that is where the displays were set up. We hung there for about an hour and then the Wells family did as we always do; headed to downtown to Joe T. Garcia’s for dinner.

See more pics:
-from the service here.
-family at Joe T’s here.

Dad’s (Short) Journey with ALS