As usual, it's hard to get going on a Monday morning. Therefore I'll use the craft of writing as a way to get my brain in gear. The biggest thing with me lately has been been my Uncle Chip's (George P. Kerns's) passing, so that will be the blog topic du jour. 

 

As an aside, every time I use du jour, I think of Dumb and Dumber: "What's the Soup Du Jour?" "It's the soup of the day." "Ooo that sounds good, I'll have that!".

 

But it's not really an aside, it's the perfect roll in to talking about George and his life. He always managed to work in a pun or laugh about something - a good sense of humor was highly respected by him.

 

As for his funeral, it was truly a celebration of him. He was a pastor at his church and by virtue of living in a small town and being customer service for the family auto dealer, he knew many, many people. This led to his funeral being the largest his church had ever had. 

 

While it was sad at times, as George would have wanted it, there were many laughs. I can't say enough about the church's service: it was very informal, not the stand/kneel/sit/repeat after us of the Catholic style that I'm used to. 

 

No, there was just talking about how he lived, some music performed by other pastors on guitar and a couple of prayers. I recall Chip (aka George) telling me several times about how laid back his church was, but I never took him up on going in to check it out. I sort of regret it now, but plan on at least going once to see a service. 

 

I can't say enough about my Uncle Chris and Aunt Carol. Chris and Carol are this sort of super-duo that can do it all. For almost every family event they help organize things and usually write something up and read it aloud. And not some boring thing that everyone dreads, no they usually kill. This day was no different; they read a chronicling of Chip's life that was just amazing. 

 

They touched on many different things, but by the end of I could tell that the mood in the place had changed. There were many laughs and, as they pointed out, Chip would have wanted it that way. I never knew this, but it was Chris who originally called George "Chip", or rather "Chipper", because that was his usual attitude.

 

They recounted how the family, when Chip was a kid, would forget about Chip because he was so quiet and happily playing by himself. One time, on a family vacation, they got several miles down the road before realizing they left him.

 

I'll have to get a copy of what they wrote and post it online - for those that may be interested and for friends and family that couldn't make it to the service. 

 

Well I guess that's it. I don't have a good way to end this post, but thanks for obliging me by reading to the very end. I know it's very detailed family stuff but I'm not sure it's all that interesting for most people. But I guess that doesn't matter because this is a BLOG POST and it should really only matter to me, right?  :-p