Funeral

 The week following my dad's death was filled with crying, sleepless nights, sadness along with family, funny Steve stories, time with Cindy and planning a funeral. No one ever prepares you for the fact that you will be planning your parent's funeral someday. I mean I guess in the back of my mind I knew that, but I thought it was going to be when he was 80+ and we felt like he lived his life to the fullest. My dad didn't even get the chance to retire. At the time he passed away he was still working 40+ hours a week. He loved Cindy, his kids and grandkids and he had so much to live for. So, planning a funeral for someone that you felt like got cheated out of some years was tough. But if Steve Mattern taught us anything it was that you do what you gotta do. Steph went on to be the Maid of Honor in a wedding 2 days later. I attended a play and piano recital. Along with doing all the things we had to do we were putting together a funeral that Dad would be proud of. We picked all the things at the funeral home, we ordered flowers, we picked a church and spoke to the pastor. We wanted her to have a good understanding of the kind of person our dad was if she was going to be the one saying the final words about his life. We spoke to Randy and asked him to speak at the funeral. We picked some of his favorite songs, dad had so many favorite songs! We printed pictures, went through high school yearbooks and pulled out stuff to set out at the funeral. We outfitted our family to attend a visitation and a funeral, and we all did this while holding on by a thread.

I think we pulled off a funeral my dad would have been proud of! 

We invited people to come back to The Tavern after the burial to spend some time in a place where Dad loved. He had an entire tavern in his barn so that him and his buddies would have a place to unwind at the end of a hard day or week. We had great music from the record player, pizzas from the pizza oven, drinks and cigars. He had so many people that showed up to honor him which is such a testament to how he lived his life. You really couldn't find a better guy than Steve Mattern!