There are a breed of people who for some reason or another have trouble rousing themselves from slumber in the morning. No matter how early they try and get to sleep or how many alarms they set, they find a way to slip up. I am one of those people, and this morning it almost cost me my chance to pay my last respects to my grandfather.
Services were to begin at 8:30 am in Keyport, a 45 minute drive from where I live. Mass was to follow starting at 9:15. I arose from slumber sometime around 9:30. A steady stream of profanities and an overwhelming sense of dread hung over me, but I managed to pull together enough brains cells to figure out my remaining courses of action.
I called the funeral home, getting details on when the procession would be arriving at the cemetery and direction on how to get there. I figured it was the only chance I had left. I hung up the phone, threw on my monkey suit and raced out the door as quickly as I could.
Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on heaven’s door” and the Queen / David Bowie co-effort “Under Pressure” greeted me on the radio as I raced to try and catch up with my family at the cemetery. Never let it be said that god doesn’t have a sense of irony.
My trip on the Parkway was smooth enough, but once I hit the back roads it seemed like every slow driver in New Jersey was in front of me. I was against the clock at every twist and turn, heading through parts of Monmouth county I had never seen before all in an attempt to meet up with my family at the cemetery.
Thankfully I got very concise directions from the funeral home director over the phone, and by the grace of the man upstairs I made it in time to say my last goodbyes under haze covered skies. Better late than never I suppose. I arrived in the closing minutes of the service, just in time to say an “Our Father”, a “Hail Mary” and place a rose on Pop-Pop’s casket.
While not the way I had envisioned things going, I still was able to beat the clock and not miss my chance, though “better late than never” seems to be a personal motto of mine….
Tags: Personal