Get Me to the Church on Time

Settling back into a routine now that we've returned home has helped deal with the pain of losing John. I find myself constantly remembering all the things from last week, and then remembering John, when he was an angel and when he irritated me to no end. I guess coming from a family of 8 kids, family funerals will always end with some interesting stories. Hubby and I have the story of driving to Ellen's funeral (Tampa to DC). We originally left Tampa at noon on Saturday (the girls being 5 and 3 yrs old). Unfortunately, an hour north of Tampa the fuel pump on our van broke. Fortunately, a rest stop was literally right there and we pulled into the parking lot to call AAA. Fortunately, AAA said they could send a tow-truck out immediately. Unfortunately, they sent it to the wrong rest-stop (south of Tampa, instead of north of Tampa). Unfortunately it took 4 hours for the tow truck to finally arrive. Fortunately, our mechanic works out of the north part of town and we had our van towed to his shop. Fortunately, Hubby's cousin met us there and we were able to transfer everything from the van to his car. Unfortunately, we didn't have a vehicle to drive to DC. Fortunately, Hubby's cousin and his family fed us dinner as Hubby and cousin went and got us a van from a rental company. Fortunately, we were able to get on the road at 7pm. Unfortunately, the girls were already tired of travelling and we hadn't left town yet! Somehow we made it to Maryland (where we were staying with friends) in time to drop the girls off, take a quick shower and change and get to the viewing at the funeral home at 6 or 7pm the next night. Kevin hadn't heard that story until last week. [Well, I wasn't going to tell him the story at his wife's funeral...we made it...that's what counted.]
My brother, Mark from California had an even more harrowing experience getting to John's funeral. Planning to arrive late the night before John's funeral, he left home early that morning. Everything was going fine until he arrived at Dulles Airport (DC area). All flights were cancelled because of storms. The next flight was at 10:30 the following morning (John's funeral was at 10 am). So after hours of standing in line to find his luggage, rent a car (the last one on the lot), he drove the 500 miles from Dulles to Sumter. Stopping to change clothes at my parents' house, he arrived sometime after the funeral began, but made it! John was remembered as someone who got things done...a hard worker...determined and deligent. Those qualities are easily seen in all my brothers (and my dad). There's a reason he was like that...he had great examples.