I'm a freak....

My Uncle - Dad's brother - sent me this package. It contained stuff from my Dad's service in Omaha Ne.

And it made me feel unreasonably pissed off.

I get that he was just trying to be nice... dunno why it made me mad. Guess death affects people in odd ways.

It had probably 50 of those in memoriam cards with Dad's info on the back and some scripture. And what exactly am I supposed to do with those? Pass them out like baseball cards to all my friends?

He included the song list from the service, a copy of the guest list, a copy of those people who donated money toward the service or made donations to the Parkinson's Disease Research Fund and a photocopied letter in old lady handwriting that read something like this:

"Dear Family Friends,

This Christmas will not be a happy one because my son was diagnosed with cancer and he isn't expected to live that long. Enjoy your family.

Love Alice"

Who is Alice? I have no idea. Poor thing.

My Uncle wrote a note asking if my sister and I had put aside any money for a marker at Dad's internment site? (nope - we wanted him in an unmarked grave - thanks for asking! Gawd. Stupid Uncle...) Said he sent pictures to my sister and to please call him if I had any questions.

And it all made me mad. I know, I know - unreasonable. He's trying to be nice. And how would he know what was supposed to be at the internment site? Well, I guess he could have asked the funeral home when he picked up the ashes for the service and then returned them for internment. Whatever.

I called the cemetery to find out what was going on with Dad's headstone/marker whatever it is. That is something Dad paid for in 1989. When I was putting all this in place and deciding between a mausoleum or internment of his ashes, I was gonna choose the mausoleum because it seemed sorta overkill, pardon the pun, to put his ashes in the ground but they said his name was engraved with his date of birth once he paid for his headstone/marker back in '89. (creepy)

I figured since it was already 1/2 way done, and it was something he picked out, he'd go in the ground and get to use the headstone/marker he chose and paid for.

Once I simmer down and hear back from the cemetery caretaker, I'll send my Uncle a nice and polite thank-you note with the cemetery headstone/marker information.

He'll never have to know that I'm feeling quite pissy about his stupid little death package. After all, Dad was his brother so there is no reason to be a big ol' ass on my part about it. Funny (not exactly funny ha-ha either) how those emotions sorta blind side you and come out sideways huh?

I'm sure my panties will smooth themselves out soon... until then I hope you are all warm and safe and sending kind thoughts to Alice, whoever and wherever she may be.