Funeral for a Friend / Love Lie's Bleeding

If you have spent time following the blog, you know that I am comfortable snitching song titles to use for blog post titles. When JoAnne and I were dating in the mid 70's, Elton John was popular and we attended a few of his concerts together. He wrote a couple of songs titled as above. The lyrics of the song have no current pertinence, but the title evokes some pleasant memories and is appropriate.

Please enjoy photographs of JoAnne's funeral by double clicking on the picture directly below. It will take you to Picasa where we store them for public viewing. Select Slideshow in the upper left and it will walk you through. You can also choose the time between pictures or just click through them manually if you prefer. Smartphone viewing may be slightly different and I noticed that the captions weren't visible on my iPhone. This file along with all of the photos from the blog can also be accessed by double clicking the link Petersen Family Pictures then clicking on one of the folders to open. Please enjoy.

JoAnne's Funeral Service, June 8, 2012

On Friday afternoon, June 8, 2012, we conducted a small funeral service. The memorial started tearfully, especially for the kids. I was holding it together until our guitar soloist, Dayton Dodge, led us in the singing of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. I kind of lost it. Kelly was sitting next to me. She's thinking, "Oh man. If he is falling apart and we've only just started, who am I going to lean on?"

As is my behavior, I got it out of my system quickly and pulled it together while Dayton shared music and Pastor John Sommerville shared his thoughts about JoAnne along with the word of God. John left a career with General Mills a number of years ago. He was your Cheerios marketing chief. He has led City Church from its inception 7+ years ago. The relative newness of the church results in a younger congregation on average. He has done many weddings, but not so many funerals. I guess that is a good thing. More importantly, he explained that he has led even fewer funerals for someone he considered a close, personal friend. He and JoAnne hit it off right from their first introduction.  We are all the more blessed because of our relationship with him, his family and the church that he leads. Funeral directors see a lot of ministers, pastors, priests, et al. In wrapping up after the funeral, ours asked about John and commented on how impressed he was with John's presence. I don't think he was shining my apple as the bill had already been paid :-) In short, if you impress a funeral director who sees 'em all, you must be one heckuva man of God.

We moved on to the sharing of memories. I was prepared to say a few words....of course. Can you believe this? I was maybe two sentences into a heartfelt expression of my sorrows before the gathered when...the alarm on my cell phone started blaring! I had silenced my phone, but there is a 2:30 PM alarm that goes off on weekdays that reminds me to watch for our grandson's school bus.  I now know that silencing your phone doesn't silence the alarms. Surely this occurrence set off a laugh in JoJo as I would routinely remind her to silence her phone at movies, church, etc.

More people than I expected were willing to share their memories of JoAnne. Plentiful tears were shed and we came away feeling our loss, but in many ways closer. In summing it up, John noted that he had learned two things from our memories; JoAnne was perfect :-) and Kevin had been an Eagle Scout. The latter was something that he was having a very difficult time getting his head around :-)

I have discussed this before, but we had a small service as a survival move. Having been through funerals with Mom & Dad among others, there is immense emotional energy that goes into the 3 or 4 days after death and through a complete funeral. As it turns out, we made the right decision. By Friday bedtime, I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but still among the living. If we had tried to deal with the many who would have shown up to pay their respects at a full funeral, I know it would have been a trying ordeal. I didn't want that to be a prevailing memory of JoAnne's funeral. In retrospect, there were a couple of people very special to JoAnne that I overlooked, and I regret not including them. Otherwise, everything has been perfect.

With the funeral behind us, we can turn our attention towards a celebration of JoAnne's life that will occur on July 14 in Minneapolis. Plans are progressing and we will keep interested parties up to date. JoAnne now comfortably resides in our living room. Some people find it odd. I find it very comforting. She is still among us. Passing time will reveal the best way for us to honor her remains.

There have been some hiccups with the blog and pictures, but I think we have it worked out for now. Thanks to one and all for being there for us.

Keep the faith