While reflecting on Deidre Blair’s post regarding hiring a photographer for a funeral or memorial service I was reminded that the last two funerals I’ve attended in the last couple of months, my last “living” encounter with the deceased was at previous visitation gatherings. Who knew?

The last time I saw the Rook family was in the reception line at Kevin Umlauf’s visitation last year. His wife Sharon showed me her new tattoo that she got on her 60th birthday.

Last month, at my cousin’s memorial service, (again, no body present) I realized that the last time I’d seen her was at my uncle’s wake.

No pictures were taken at these events. Diedre is right when she says, “Yes, these are hard events to document. But the reward is great.”

The scrap book of our lives. This is an interesting concept and the flip side of the old custom of snapping pix of the deceased, just friends and family.

Greetings! Is Mr. Fancy Pants offering up a bowl of cherries? Very symbolic.

Last Sunday was the first funeral I’d been to where no body was present. And I don’t mean “nobody”. Joe Rook’s funeral was big. Over 1200 guests according to the funeral home.

It’s likely that for many of the people there, it was the first time to attend a funeral without a body present. Even though cremation is on the rise here, we’re still pretty traditional in Southwest Missouri.

The main chapel seats 500 and guest spilled over into three other rooms. We watched the service on a giant screen. Although I could hear Joe’s granddaughter singing, I wish I could have seen her. She was off-camera.

This was my first Masonic Service and first time to visit the new facility at Greenlawn Funeral Home East. The new location is gorgeous, modern design, soothing decor and a far cry from their north location, that hasn’t been updated in 40 years.

The family chose to have a one hour visitation before the service and the funeral directors were getting nervous about an obvious time crunch (they had another service scheduled later) and handled the crowd in an orderly fashion.

Impressive.

This post is not intended to be a critique of the service, only an observation of the service and new facility at the largest funeral provider in this market.

I’ve been meditating on Joe’s tag line: “It’s a beautiful day in the Ozarks!” and hope you will too. Have a great week!

We lost a good friend in the garden last week, Joe Rook on 9/5/07.

Joe had a double lung transplant at Barnes Jewish Hospital in April. The last three months of Joe’s life was amazing; he enjoyed every day to the fullest!

Lakin’ it and loving life! Joe belonged to Rice Camp at Table Rock Lake and spent most of his free time at his lake home. Nothing would make Joe happier than a 100-degree day and a bottle of suntan oil!

Joe knew no strangers, and had countless friends that he helped make it through life by helping them to live it “One Day at a Time!” His trademark was “It’s a beautiful day in the Ozarks!”

Joe belonged to the Gate of the Temple Lodge, and was a thirty-second degree Mason. He was on the Shriners’ Directors Staff and was active with the Shriners’ Hospital Dads. Joe traveled many miles transporting children to St. Louis, helping them to get the medical care that they needed.

We’ll miss Joe and send our deepest sympathies to his wife Sharon, and kids Sonya and Jodie and extended family.