September 6, 2008~Funeral Arrangements/Obituary

Charlies family was taking care of the funeral arrangements. For this, I was grateful because I had NO money to support ourselves, let alone dish out thousands of dollars for a funeral. No one even asked me any questions or my input, which was fine by me. The family chose a funeral home. They were going to use the funeral home run by the priests sons (not TOO much of a conflict of interest). They chose a casket, and viewing times. They chose the service to be held at his church. He was going to be buried with his dad, a plot that was meant for his mom. They wrote the obituary. They called me and told me the times for the viewings on Sunday, and the funeral on Monday. They asked that I come 15 minutes early to each viewing time (there were 2). At this time, they also asked me to have flowers sent from K. They were going to the florist and would get some from her, but thought it would be nice it I did it instead. I told them I would. I had saved about $100 for the start of school. First day always costs some $$ because you have to sign up for the school newletter, bagel and pizza days, get a school shirt....and anything else that pops up. I start calling some florists in his town. Minimum order is $35 + delivery. I didn't want to be cheap, but I had no money. So I ordered an arrangement, asked them to put a "DAD" bow on it, and sent a loving card from K.

Charlies obituary ran in the newspaper on Saturday, September 6th. He lived in a county one over from the county I live in, so I had to read it online (that local paper can not be bought in my county, I don't think). In the listings of survived by, his mom was listed first. I, surprisingly, was listed 2nd and listed as his wife. I am positive that if Elaine had her way, I would not have been listed at all. K, was listed 3rd. What shocked me was where the family asked donations to go to. And that was the church! Yes, the church with the crooked priest! I WAS PISSED! They all knew that Charlie didn't have a pot to pee in, was not paying child support, had no life insurance policy, already owed me thousands in back child support and half of our severly asthmatic and allergy ridden daughter doctors and medicine bills, who had no health insurance, so all her meds were being paid out of pocket, usually my parents pockets. How could NO ONE think of K, his only daughter. Many people who die and have young children ask "In lieu of flowers, please donate to the childs college education." Instead, their crooked priest was getting an addition put on his Florida home. The next day, I said something to Jim, Charlies brother in law about this. Later, he got back to me. Apparently, the funeral home (the crooked priests sons) asked Charlies mom where she wanted donations to go to. She was so overwhelmed, she said she would think about it....but didn't get back to them. The funeral home made the decision for her where donations would go to. I was a little comforted that she didn't decide that.