Funeral Experience

I thought I would share an experience I had last year....My friend, and co-worker, Michael was murdered last year. He was attacked in the parking lot of a major store here in Las Vegas. Michael had serious brain damage and was taken off life support about a week after the attack. I was holding Michael's hand as he passed away.

Michael's family made arrangements to have Michael's remains sent to Texas for the funeral. We decided to have a memorial service for him here as he has many friends in Las Vegas who couldn't make it to Texas. I was shopping for candles for my kids and I to have at the memorial. My daughter asked me if we should get extra candles for people who didn't bring any.

I was putting this entire memorial service together on a prayer and a shoestring as I am a single mom with no outside help for raising my kids and Michael's family was strapped enough by having to fly out to be with him during his hospital stay. I finally said "we will cut money out of our grocery budget, lets just get them." We purchased the candles and other supplies we needed for the memorial service (totalling just over $20) and went to set up. My son came up to me when we were setting up the amphitheater and showed me a dollar he found blowing in the wind near the stage. We joked that it was Michael helping pay for his candles. This was funny until my daughter (who hadn't heard my son and I) came up and showed me a dollar she found blowing in the wind on the other side of the stage.

Then is was just wierd. I was bent down talking to one of our wheelchair-bound customers during the funeral. As we talked, what I thought was a piece of paper blew across my foot. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. When we got home I took all of the trash out of my pockets. I was shocked to see what I had picked up was actually a
receipt from the store where Michael was attacked. Wrapped in the receipt was the person's paper-money change... $19. The receipt was for several purchases including two movies (Michael and I always shared movie reviews with each other) the movies were Barbershop (I had been joking with Michael the day he was attacked about needing a hair cut) and Waiting to Exhale (when I was holidng Michael's hand after they removed the life support, I kept telling him it would be okay and he was just waiting to exhale). Needless to say, I know it was Michael just letting me know he was still around and watching.

We have had some strange events at our office since Michael passed away. The automatic faucets in our restroom will come on by themselves. (I always joke that it is Michael warming up the water for me.) Sometimes you can enter our building on the weekends and close and lock the door (we have a security system that automatically locks the door behind you) and when you get half way down the hallway the door will unlock and relock on its own (you can hear it). I think he just hangs out here because we were his "local family" and he just misses us as much as we miss him. Whatever it is, Michael will always be welcome in my office.

By: moms2tall@yahoo.com