Rest in Peace

My dad's funeral was last Thursday. We had a wonderful funeral for him, I think he would have approved of it. It started early in the day, a group of veteran's called "Rolling Thunder" escorted dad from the funeral home to the church on their motorcycles with flags flying. We had a lovely mass, Kelley and I did the readings, Kelley and Traci sang one of mom and dad's favorite hymns "Be Not Afraid" I can't sing that song, ever, every time I do I start to cry. My brother gave the best eulogy, he gave mom's when she left us 9 years ago.The topper to the whole service were two things, one-the same priest who did mom's service also did dad's and the very best part was the bag pipe player, he did "Amazing Grace" my dad loved that song. This young fellow is the only active duty military Bag Pipe player, anywhere in the US Military. After mass as were leaving the church the Bag Pipe player played "Scotland the Brave", the cars were all lined up and we went out the NAS Pensacola to Baranncas National Cemetery. Rolling Thunder was in the lead with the hearse, family and friends close behind. People all along the road stopped and payed tribute to dad, he would have loved it, he stopped traffic all over town. When he came through the gates of the Navy base even the guards stood at attention. We got to the cemetery and the AF honor guard from Eglin AFB were waiting for us. They did a flag folding ceremony for us, my husband Dave read the story of what the flag means to us. It was then pasted from the honor guard to all the military members of our family, from my brother to sister, to nephew-in-law, to my son, to my brother's son to my stepmother. Tears were rolling down their faces as they did this wonderful thing for my dad. After the flag folding dad got a 21 gun salute, a bugler played Taps and the bag pipe player played Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave again. Dad was put in the niche with my mom so now they are together forever.