A Bugle... and a Gorilla

During these difficult times of sadness, a few humorous moments are a necessary break from all of the seriousness.

There are two such moments that come to my mind.

My dad was very proud of his service to his country, having served as a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army during WWII, stationed in N. Africa, Italy, and France. He was awarded a Service Medal with six bronze stars for his years of service. He had let it be known that he wanted to be buried with a Military Funeral when his time came.

We, of course, honored that request.

An American flag was draped over the coffin and then ceremoniously folded and presented to my mom.

There was a Color Guard and a "bugler" who was to play "Taps" during the ceremony. These days the Armed Services do not always have enough buglers available, so bugles with electronic recordings are frequently used and sound very authentic.

As the recording started to play....it abruptly stopped in the middle of the song-before it was finished. We all thought that maybe this was intentional...representing the ending of a life...but, it turned out that the battery had obviously died during the "performance"...leaving the bugler unable to do anything more. An embarrassing moment for sure...!

During my dad's long stay in the hospital, his room was filled with notes, cards, pictures, balloons and a few stuffed animals. One of the animals was a strange-looking gorilla. This large, black creature was clutching a Valentine's heart in it's paws, but this could not help the fact that it was quite scary looking with it's beady eyes that seemed to glare at you.

Mom did not care for this gorilla at all, but we left it in the room for Dad because it was sent to him with loving thoughts.

As Dad moved from Intensive Care to the Hospice Care, the gorilla was not far behind, much to Mom's chagrin.

Dad passed away in the middle of night after that last move.... and the gorilla was not given much thought after that.

When the family went to the Funeral Home to view my dad's body, we were all totally shocked when we looked into the casket.

There sitting right next to my dad was THE GORILLA!

We began to laugh hysterically as we thought about what the Funeral Director must have thought when he placed that hideous, stuffed gorilla in with Dad.

Even though our laughter followed many tears....it was a great release for all of us...

And, in case you were wondering....the gorilla was immediately removed and given to Funeral Home employee who had a young son who loved monkeys!