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I was asked to give the eulogy for him based on the one I wrote on here and Facebook the other day.  So I expanded on my remarks a bit but when I got to the church and looked at the program, my eulogy was nowhere to be found.  We had a mass, the priest gave a nice sermon, we had communion and the mass was just about over.  My sister leaned over to me and asked "What happened to your eulogy?".  I told her, "It looked like it ended up on the cutting room floor, like Kevin Costner's scene in The Big Chill.".  This cracked her up and she started laughing and her husband leaned over and asked her what was so funny.  She told him and he started laughing and my nephews wanted to know what was up and they started laughing too.

So, about that time, right near the end, the priest said "and now we will have a eulogy from Richard's brother".  I was all "whut the hayul?" and all 9 priests were looking at me and my sister elbowed me and said "You're up."  So I went up there without having mentally polished it at all and had to wing it.  After talking a bit about what a nice guy he was, I made a joke about him being an Alabama fan and that showing that nobody was perfect, which was received pretty well.  It all worked out fine and I got some nice compliments about it and, in truth, it was pretty easy to wing it as he really was a great guy.

After the funeral, he was buried at the Veteran's Cemetery here in Chattanooga and it was a beautiful ceremony.  They fired a 21 gun salute, played taps, folded up the flag on the casket and presented it to his widow and then they did something that I had never seen before which was really nice.  They released 3 doves into the air representing the Holy Trinity and about 10 seconds later released a 4th one, symbolizing my brother assuring us that he would join the rest .  Well, the 3 doves sailed off to the right, the 4th dove flew off to the left and somebody said "There's Richard doing his own thing."  We all laughed and watched as all 4 of them ended up together in formation as someone said "Look now Richard is leading them."  There was not a dry eye in the house.  It's a hell of a thing for a 47 year old man with a family to die but, I will say, he had one hell of a sendoff.

I think it's wonderful that your family not only cried together, but laughed together as well. I can tell from reading between the lines that your's is a close knit family. You have really been blessed.

My thanks for his service to our country, Jethro.  It isn't an easy thing to say goodbye to somebody so close.  Hang in there. 

My thoughts exactly.   You're in our thoughts and prayers, Jethro.

Not an easy thing to do. Condolences to you and your family. May your brother rest in peace.

Jethro,

I'm very sorry to hear but am glad you shared.