[Magdalen] One down

[Kristin Rollins]

Jay's report of her son's funeral yesterday.

-- 
  Kristin Rollins
  kristin at verumsolum.com
  Portsmouth, VA

On Sat, Jan 9, 2016, at 10:59 PM, Jay Weigel wrote:
> Today was my Adam's funeral service in the church where he was baptized
> and
> brought up and where he was an acolyte for many years. It was a most
> amazing day, though a very hard one. We began receiving friends an hour
> before the service and I was absoutely dumfounded by how many people
> showed
> up. There were people I hadn't seen in years, some since he was a little
> boy, some since his high school days, others I only knew from him talking
> about them, some I didn't know at all. The Swamp Rats turned out in
> force,
> minus only two who live some distance away, and even the other
> local surviving Swamp Mom and Swamp Dad (different families). His buddies
> from the Guard were there, even those who had drill this weekend and
> could
> only beg off long enough to stop by and pay  their respects to the
> family.
> One of my brothers was able to fly in from San Francisco. The flowers
> were
> done by a friend who had known Adam since he was a teenager and had cut
> his
> hair numerous times and done flowers for all family occasions. The
> service
> was performed by a deacon who'd known him since he was a litte guy in
> diapers. Lectors were old choir buddies of mine, and eulogies were given
> by
> Betsy's husband and one of Adam's closest friends (and my other-son) who
> is
> a career Army NCO. John touched on the sucide rate of Iraq and
> Afghanistan
> veterans very effectively in his talk and I was grateful for that. It was
> an incredibly hard but very beautiful day but I wish I didn't have to do
> it. This whole business just sucks. Monday I have to bury my boy and
> I'll have to leave him behind here in Tennessee when I go back to
> Virginia.
> This is just WRONG.