Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Prosperity (05/11/06)
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TITLE: A tale of two funerals | Previous Challenge Entry
By Sue Dent
05/12/06 -
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* * *
Wilber Eubanks slipped quietly away, his family standing around his bedside as he did. “Love you, pops,” his youngest son Will whispered as the heart monitor beeped slower.
“Peace be with you,” his precious wife prayed as she leaned to kiss him on his forehead. “I should have known you’d make good on your promise to go first. You better not tear heaven apart before I get there.”
“We’ll never forget you,” his second oldest granddaughter boasted.
The monitor straight-lined and was then disconnected.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him look more content,” Will remarked.
His mother nodded. “Indeed.”
* * *
“We want the most expensive coffin you have,” Ray Rutherford announced proudly. “My father worked hard for what he had and we want him to go in style. Yes, the most expensive coffin you have and nothing less.”
* * *
“Nothing fancy,” Will told the funeral home attendant. “We could probably afford it and if we couldn’t, God would provide but Pop would come back in a second if he knew we’d buried him in anything other than the cheapest thing we could buy.”
* * *
“What do you mean St. Paul’s isn’t available? It’s the only place large enough to handle the crowds that are sure to show.” He looked perturbed as the voice on the other end of his cell explained further. “Well, I don’t care who has it booked, I’ll pay whatever it takes to get it. And we want the service outside in the gardens.”
* * *
“That’s fine,” Will said as the women on the phone explained that they’d have to put the funeral service off until later that afternoon. “It’s just a formality anyway and we’re just glad the church is letting us use the facility. Who’d a thought they’d extend such gratitude to a janitor?”
* * *
The clouds grew thicker and just when they thought they’d make it through the service, the bottom fell out. Ray Rutherford, and everyone else, was forced inside by the biggest rainstorm in over a month. Flower arrangements were picked up by the wind and tossed about while upset mourners dove inside the church for cover. Ray clutched his chest as the weight of the day seemed to come down on him at once.
* * *
The storm had cooled everything off, the humidity was gone. Will took a deep breath. “Smell that,” he said to his wife. “That’s why Pop always came out here after a good rain. He said nothing smelled sweeter.”
She smiled. “We couldn’t have asked for a better day? Isn’t it funny how things work out?”
* * *
“What do you mean I can’t get my money back? The rainstorm ruined the funeral! What’s wrong with this world when a man as prosperous as my father can’t get a decent funeral? I need that money!”
* * *
“Please take the money,” Will begged. “I feel like we owe you something. Sure, Pop worked for the church for nearly seventy years but you’ve got overhead and I know Pop would want you to take this.”
“You keep it. You never know when you might need it,” the chaplain said.
Will smiled, put the bills in the Chaplain’s hand and closed his fist around it. “The day I start worrying about money is the day I stop believing in God. I’ve never been richer.”
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