Second Chance

Chapter3-B Reese

We all take a deep breath and walk into the funeral home. It has a cozy, pull-up-a-hot-cup-of-cocoa feel, with couches in the foyer that would make you want to curl up and read a good book.

A few of the couches line the wall, and a few coffee tables are scattered in front of about half the couches. Every table has at least one box of tissues. Trying to distract myself, I find myself thinking I wouldn’t want to see how much of a funeral home’s budget goes to paying for tissues.

The funeral director comes out and asks if we are Joanie’s family. Logan nods before he introduces Joanie's parents to the funeral director. He nods, pays his condolences, and directs us to his office. I thought about how practiced those condolences are and how fake they really must be.

We walk into his office. He has a table with 6 chairs. We walk over and sit at the table to discuss the details.

My head is spinning. How does someone plan a funeral like this? I wonder if it's for the best that I'm single. I can’t imagine planning to bury someone I love, or worse, having them sit here in these seats and plan my funeral.

My mom has her funeral all planned out, and I think I should do the same to spare my mom, Logan, and Nathan the heartache of doing that if something were to happen to me. I wonder if Joanie had done that. If we are lucky, this will be simple.

No such luck. Listening to Logan, Joanie had discussed her thoughts and expressed some of her wants to a small extent, but she had never put them in writing or shared some of her wishes with her parents. Logan and Joanie's mom Jean deal with some small confrontations, nothing major.

Joanie didn’t want a song played, but her mom insisted that every family member had this song played at their funeral. Logan didn’t need me to have his back because the funeral director managed to get them to compromise by playing the song before the funeral, but not during the funeral. Logan agreed that would be fine.

Then, when they picked out the casket, Logan insisted Joanie wouldn’t want a super-fancy coffin and that she wanted a fairly simple one. The funeral director pointed out one that was not super-fancy but was very classy. It was white with gold handles. That seemed to make both Logan and Joanie’s mom happy.

I tell you a funeral director would likely make the perfect hostage negotiator because he was able to listen to the desires of both parties and find a solution. Ultimately, everyone seemed to be at peace with the arrangements.

Logan then invited Joanie’s parents back to his house so they could select pictures to display at the funeral home and for the slideshow that the funeral home would show during the visitation. He also offered to call Mom to have her bring the kids over so they could see them as they went through the photos.

It was nice to see that everything was calm. I felt like a little bit of the tension was gone, now that the basic things had been decided.

I get into Logan’s car. He takes a deep sigh. “Thanks for coming with me, sis,” he says. It seems odd to have him talking to me without teasing me. That is our thing. We tease each other.

“Logan, no matter what you need, Mom and I are here for you.” I want to ensure he understands that he is not alone. That he has a support system.

“I never doubted it, but it helps to hear it,” he tells me. Again, his voice is fairly flat as he starts the car, and we head to his house. I can’t imagine dealing with everything he is dealing with.

We arrive at about the time Joanie’s parents do, then Mom arrives with the kids. I can see Jean's face lighten up a bit when seeing the kids.

Jace runs to his other grandma as soon as he is out of the car and hugs her. I can see her start to cry. It feels like these tears are not only for her. It feels like she is crying, not only for the loss of her daughter, but also knowing her grandson has lost his mom.

I am not sure how much the kids understand. I am not aware if Mom or Logan have told them yet. Yet that doesn’t matter right now. Right now, Jace is happy to see his grandparents, and he needs to make the most of this moment.

To be honest, I feel like the adults all need this moment as well. One moment to not worry about things.