Final Preparations

I'm now a blogger, I guess -- while preparing everything for tomorrow and Friday I kept thinking "I'll have to write about this tonight..." But there will only be a few more posts here. It's the Rachie Report, not the Pat Report, after all, and her story's almost told.

• The kids lazed around the house today for the most part, and then Fi went for a sleepover at Maddy's. I'm sending them all to school tomorrow for the sake of continuity/routine.
• Sheila and Kathy have been working with me all day on a variety of things -- clothes for Rachel, a picture slideshow for the visitation, designing/writing the prayer cards and Mass booklets, hoteling the out-of-towners, etc. It's really good to be busy.
• It's sounding like there will be a big crowd on Friday -- school has been canceled, and we'll have friends old and new from all sorts of places.
• I visited several cemeteries this morning, and chose Calvary Cemetery in Evanston. It's the one right on the border of Evanston and Chicago, on Sheridan Road. From there you can see the two towns where Rachel lived for the last 24 years, and Lake Michigan, of course. I reserved two plots, one of which I hope not to use for a good long time.

Here's a funny cemetery story (!) to close with: Right next to those plots I noticed eight grave markers which were identical in design, but with different names and wildly different dates of death (early 1900's to 2008). I asked the cemetery clerk what the story was, and he said an eccentric old guy came in last year and bought eight plots at once. He then proceeded to unload seven containers of ashes from the trunk of his car, including those of his recently-deceased wife. He ordered all the markers and closed the deal, in a timely manner -- he joined them earlier this summer. (I did wonder what else was in his house...)

Pat