Life is odd...
September 28, 2008
Today was a recuperative day, I guess. Here's a take on my Friday and Saturday.
I got up at 6:30 on Friday morning as usual, and after my shower, checked my email around 7:30 or so. I had an email from a friend of mine I used to work with saying, basically, "I imagine you've already heard this, but Kristina Zubrickus passed away on Monday. The funeral is Friday at 10:00."
Well, Jessie, thank you so much. I got Sean off to school, walked the dog, quick put on a suit and drove to Southfield for the funeral. Here's the first of two oddities. Kristina was Lithuanian and very involved with the Lithuanian community. The church for the funeral was a Lithuanian Catholic Church. The entire funeral service--every word--was in Lithuanian.
I'm not Catholic. Nor am I Lithuanian. It was a beautiful service and only a total ignoramus would have missed the raw emotion in one of the songs sung along with a guitarist. Still, sitting through a service in a language you don't understand does give you a lot of time to think about death and mortality and the person you're there respecting and honoring. There's humor in it, I suppose, but I was upset enough by the death of the woman to not be all that amused.
Kristina and her twin sister Regina (who I did get to express my condolences to) both stand about 6 foot 1 or 2. I had been told that they were from a very tall family, one brother who is 6 foot 7! I'm about 5' 8', maybe a little taller (in my dreams, perhaps), and I came a little late (with the coffin, actually), and it was standing room only, essentially, and I got a folding chair at the back of the church. It appears to me that Lithuanians in general are very, very TALL. All of them! I swear, the AVERAGE height of the men--AVERAGE--must have been 6'4" and for the women (undoubtedly wearing heels) was about 6'1".
Anyway, after the funeral, back home, try to get some work done, back-and-forthing, went to a football game Ian was playing in.
Saturday, up early, Sensei Class, my oldest received his 1st degree brown belt. Then spent late afternoon into the evening at the Brandon Invitational Marching Band Competition. Oxford Wildcats placed 3rd in the Class A--their first time at the competition, they did great.
Seems like a lot was crammed in.
Cheers,
Mark Terry
posted by Mark Terry at 3:49 PM
3 Comments:
Sorry about your friend.
Sounds like you had a full weekend. Congrats to the brown belt! He must be really good to get that far.
On another note; I read your post over at Parish's site about seeing Canada from your house. --> ROFLMAO
Sorry to hear about your friend. I had a cousin die two weeks ago . . . it's always such a time to pause and reflect. Plus the whole surreal nature of attending service in a different language. At varying times, because of my family background, I attend services in Czech, Polish, Russian, and Greek--same thing, not really speaking a word of any. I always figure (of course) one day I'll use it in a book.
E
Aimless
If only someone would consider me as Ambassador to the Caribbean!
Erica
I have to admit, I was thinking: how would I use this in a book? The answer is, in about a hundred different ways. I've never read this particular Kinky Friedman book, but one of them has him showing up to the funeral of an old friend, looking in the coffin and saying, "Who's this?" What a great concept for a novel, I've always thought.
So it's easy for me to think of some hero in a story sitting in a funeral where they don't understand the language and it just raises so many questions.
Post a Comment
<< Home