Exhausting Week & Playing Catch Up

It has been exhausting.  Finally taking a breather and watching The Silver Streak.

We left by 05:15 Sunday and made much better time getting to the border then we expected, even through we hit some bad storms south of Olympia.  We didn’t expect to get there until 11-11:30…got there just after 10:00.  We got to the hotel had time to kill before we could get our room, so had a breakfast that just didn’t sit well at all.  I think it didn’t feel right since we have been up for 7hrs and it was sweet.

We were exhausted and so totally not looking forward to what we were getting ready to face.  So we tried to lay down for about 3hrs and get some sleep……didn’t quite work.  But it did help some.  We dressed with heavy heart so not wanting to face Diesel’s death.

We got inside the funeral home and they had board up with some pics of Diesel & his family, with notes from his boys.  When we walked into the viewing room, it was hard.  We went and hugged Liza, the oldest son Jon was holding up, but when I went to hug the youngest son Dylan, he just started to cry so hard.  Harold went to hug him and he just jumped into his arms and won’t let go.  He just lost it.  It was so hard…….

They had Diesel in his Navy Dress Blues and he had a smile on his face.  Looked like he was about to wake up and tell a joke….it was perfect with who he was.  He did looked a little crunched around his shoulders in the casket, but it worked since he was such a big man in that was a normal look at times.

It was so hard, we choked up so many times and lost it a few.  One of the times that I hugged Liza, we just held each other so hard as we cried.

The viewings was different from what we are use to.  Most viewings you just wander around visiting and paying your respect, here they actually had a service.  Diesel and his wife belong to a nontraditional church that is mainly made up of Philippines, so they do it a little different.  So us nonchurch members felt kind of off balance knowing what to do, but I really did like the support that the church gave Liza and I really hope that it helped to comfort her some.  I really liked the funny pictures during the slid show, that they showed of Diesel that got all of us laughing.

Like most of these types of events you ended up seeing people you haven’t seen in years…which is sad, because we love visiting with all of D’s family.  We actually made sure to get everyone’s contact info.  A lot of us are gathering our pictures of Diesel and sharing them.

Liza and the boys started to lose it when the did one last viewing before they closed the casket and then when they took it out and they followed…..oh boy…everyone lost it, especially the Dylan.  =(  They looked so alone that my heart just felt crushed…..

We couldn’t get the 21 gun salute.  =(  Due to passports and weapons.  But we did get the flag presentation and taps.  I keep expecting to hear the guns….  =(

They had 8 pallor bearers due to the D’s size and that didn’t seem like enough.  You can see them struggling over the uneven ground.  We later said that Diesel was probably laughing at them.  But they got him set up and he was sent off with honor.

At Liza’s request she watched them lower him down with the roses and flowers that she wanted everyone to place on him, entombed him and finished burying him.  It was touching and so final. =(

We all went over to their house and shared in our memories of Diesel. By the time we got back to the hotel we just wanted to chill out so we ordered room service and just relaxed.

We left early Wed and got through the border better quick and totally lucked out on the express way being open south bound through Seattle.  We saved at least 30min off of our time.

Once we got home, I have just been working since I had payroll and 4 days of catch up.  Today is really the 1st day that I’ve had time to do things for myself.  Watched a local parade, vacuumed the house, replaced my lost ringers and did a few errands.