Assignment Number 3

10 Topics (again only picking one) that remind you of a particular incident that you can relate in a clearly organized narrative essay.
Memorable Funeral
I will remember that weekend for the rest of my life.
Life was empty and not as exciting after Mike died.  He was a young man that had his entire life in front of him.
 On Friday December 2, 1994, I was at the grocery store with my mother, we were running some errands before our busy weekend.  A really good friend of mine was having his engagement party Saturday night, and then on Sunday we were going to visit family in a town south of us.
While at the store, we saw a couple of women from church, that were my moms contemporaries.  One of them mentioned that they were going to go to Moberly Saturday morning, because a guy from the Moberly Congregation had died.  I asked who, they said Mike S.  I immediately fell apart, they had no clue that I was so close with Mike.  He was my best friends brothers best friend.  She asked how I knew him, and told her that my best friend Kari, her brother, Koby and Mike were best friends, and so of course we were always hanging around together. And also, Koby's wife is sister to Mike's fiance.  I said something about there being an engagement party for Mike and his fiance Saturday night, and that we had been planning on going.
She then told me how the accident had happened.  Mike apparently worked in Columbia on the night shift, and was on his way home that Friday morning, and someone else didn't see him, pulled in front of him sideswiping him, on the highway, and he was immediately killed.
I don't remember much until we got to his parents house on either Friday or Saturday night, all of our friends and his family were sitting around.  I believe someone had brought in veggie platters and some desserts, but not for sure.  There was not a viewing before his funeral on Monday, at least I don't remember there being one.
I don't believe we went to our families gathering on Sunday, at least I don't remember anything about it.  On Monday we went back to Moberly for the funeral.  It was very difficult, we got to the funeral, there were literally hundreds of people there, it was so full, there was nearly only standing room.
Mike was one of those people that everyone loves, he was funny, intelligent, and it didn't hurt that he was cute.
There are two scenes at the funeral that I will never forget, ever.  The first one, is before the funeral, and people are still viewing the body, I was close to the back, finding seats for my mom and I, while she was mingling with friends.  And I saw his fiance go up to Mike, she was crying, not just crying, it was that soul breaking sobbing that takes over your entire body, Annie even attempted to climb into the casket with him, her sister, Katie and her father in law had to drag her away.  I just stood there, with tears falling, watching this, it was so heartbreaking, even now, tears well up, the memory will always be just a tear away.
  The next thing I remember, we are in the car, getting ready to leave for the cemetery, and Koby and his wife, Katie, and Koby's dad walks out of the funeral home, and Koby just loses it, he falls, it honestly scared me, I was really young at the time, only 21.  I had never seen a man so emotional, and it absolutely broke my heart so see a guy I looked up to, fall apart and loose it like he did.
I had grown up going to Kari and Koby's house on the weekends, my dad was an abusive man, and so alot while I was growing up, I welcomed those weekends away.  It was a refuge for me, and to know that Kari, Angie (another good friend), Koby, Mike, and others were there for me, was one of the highlights of my life.  Mike wasn't going to be there anymore, he was gone, life was forever altered, and we still miss you very much.
It has been 18 years since then, alot of lives have changed.  Annie got married a few years later, I have married, and divorced.  Many of our friends  have married and have children in their teens now.  Mike has two nephews, that at the time were around 10-12 years old, they of course have grown, I believe one of them has even gotten married.  One of them looks so much like Mike, its eerie.
Even tho I had a hard childhood, knowing all my friends were there for me, and that I could always "run away" to them if need be, even as we all became adults, and went our separate ways, it was a comfort to know they were there.
I see those friends every now and then, but it isn't nearly as often as when we were kids.  The memories tho are the best of my life.