Mourning in the morning.....

The tolling of the bell echoed down the block as we arrived to church. Several powerful "gongs", each spaced with long pauses in between. The pallbearers carried my uncle's coffin inside and the immediate family followed.

My uncle's funeral was this past Thursday morning.

I was dressed in a white-collared shirt, striped tie, dark gray suit, and black dress boots--the EXACT ensemble I wore to a job interview last December. Job interviews and funerals are practically the same for me anyways. *sigh*

During the sermon, Father told the crowd that death is very personal yet death is also universal because we all experience it at some point, directly or indirectly.

I kept my composure during most of the ceremony but tears ran down my stoic face when the choir sang "On Eagles' Wings".

And when the procession ended my other uncle said to me, "We tried." He was the one who drove my aunt, uncle, and I to and from chemo treatments. Even though my uncle had the cancer, we all went through it with him. It affected us too.

Countless hospital visits for bloodwork, shots, chemotherapy, CT scans, and other unexpected ailments. None of us got a break from it.

We all thought in the beginning that he'd beat the cancer or at least live much longer. But things don't always work out. That's a part of life....and now death.

He was my aunt's husband. Even though there wasn't a blood relation, he was still very much my uncle. I attended their wedding when I was five. And they were both my godparents.

Rest in peace, Uncle Bill. I love you.....

My Uncle Bill with me as a child

"And He will raise you up on eagle's wings,

Bear you on the breath of dawn,

Make you to shine like the sun,

And hold you in the palm of His Hand."