Traveling Soldier

Funeral

     The funeral was three days after Mrs. Julia's death. I wore my black button up skirt with a black vintage net hat. My red lipstick stood out against my all black attire. I packed plenty of tissues in my clutch and Gabriel wore his professional army uniform that he graduated training in. Dylan had on a little back dress with leggings and he hair clipped back with a bow. She was two now and held my hand the whole time I walked around the house and the whole time we were traveling to the church.

    Everyone in town was at the funeral except Mrs. Beheller who was at the nursing home after suffering from a stroke. Mrs. Mary had me stand at the front with her. I left Dylan with Gabriel but she ran to the front and tugged my skirt anyways. It made me smile for the first time since we left the hospital. "You have to go back to Gabriel," I whispered in her ear when I lifted her up into my arms. "I wanna stay with you," she said in her sweet little voice. "Okay," I said, making sure she didn't look at the open casket. "Will she come back?" Dylan asked, looking at me with her big blue eyes. "No..." I said steadily. "Where did she go?" she asked. "She went to be with God and all the angels in Heaven," I told her. She seemed to think about this a while. 

     The visitation went by slowly with everyone sharing their calming words. When the funeral started, I had a few tears in my eyes but nothing too serious. Timothy Witherby, George and Lena Witherby's eleven year old son, came to me right before the preacher stepped up to the podium to hand me a bouquet of daisies and pink roses. "I heard it's your favorite," Timothy said with genuine sympathy. "It is," I said, smiling. He seemed to be stunned by my smile. "Is it okay if I sit with you and Gabriel?" he stuttered. "Sure," I moved over for him as he hopped into the pew and the preacher started to pray.

     The preacher spoke beautifully of Mrs. Julia and by the time Mrs. Mary said the eulogy, everyone was crying. Dylan and Timothy didn't understand as well but Gabriel rubbed my arm to try and soothe me. After the funeral we went to the cemetery to watch Mrs. Julia's casket be lowered into the ground.

      "Let's go home, baby," Gabriel said to me. Delilah and Gabriel were on either side of me with Dylan holding my hand. "You're almost three," I told Dylan, trying to lighten things. She smiled with pride that I remembered. "Only a month to go," Gabriel said. "What do you want to do for it?" I asked her. "I wanna spend it with my mommy," she said looking at me, "and my daddy," she grabbed Gabriel's hand. We were at the car and Gabriel smiled at me taking my chin and kissing me softly. "Ewww," Dylan giggled.