My agent is a funeral director..

I think I have an agent. But my agent is a Funeral Home Director.  Now that is a sentence that you don't hear, oh I don't know.. EVER.  Never thought I would say this, but I am grateful for funeral home directors. Yeah that is just a weird sentence. But you know in this wacky business that I am in, I have found a particular Funeral Director to be especially helpful in recommending me to other churches other than my current one. From him alone I now sing funerals at three churches. I think about this and then I wonder.. do I have to give him a cut, a percentage? And after I stop laughing I remember,  Nah.. they are making enough money off the recently deceased.. they don't need my measly 35 cents.

But I digress.  Robert, the fore mentioned Funeral Home Director knew that I wanted to get in with this one particular church - I had wanted to for a long time.  It just made sense - I sing at another right down the street and frankly, I sing a great funeral.. (yeah, never thought I would hear me saying that either)

So I get the text. "Guess who is singing at St. Margaret's on Friday"..  I was so happy( I know, happy to sing a funeral - face it .. I am just not normal.) .. I just simply replied.. I love you!!!  I got the famous LOL.. and then the organist called me right away.

The organist at St. Margaret's is such a lovely man. A great player and very easy going.  We chatted and we thought that  I should be there a half hour before the funeral just in case I needed to go over any music, ask what their protocols were, etc.  Awesome. This was working out well.  Then I get a call from him later in the day saying that there will be a soloist who is bringing their own music and there will be a choir.  Wow, this was becoming a production!  So I said I would get there earlier so we would have time before the soloist came and the choir warmed up.. I swear all we needed was someone doing a liturgical dance... but that was not in my job description.

I enter the church.. Holy Moly this church is gorgeous, met the organist - and we went over a few things.. then the soloist came in.. with her own music. She was ready to sing and the organist said to her - you might want to use this microphone - and she responded.. "oh I don't need one" He just looked at me and rolled his eyes. (I was falling in love with him.. very funny man) She sang and she was quite good -  And her husband showed up.. with his horn He played a few tunes - very talented. Apparently they were very close friends of the deceased.  And while that is going on, the choir comes in.  (This was going to be a long one!) Then the choir warms up... at this point I said to the organist.. "Could there be anything else that is going on during this mass?" and not two seconds later, enters the bagpiper. yep.. bagpiper - who is going to play when they exit the church. We both started to laugh.

Well the church was packed, the man who passed away, was quite young (54) and he died suddenly. So many friends and family were present.  It was an amazing representation of what an impact this man had on their lives.

When the production .. sorry I mean funeral .. was over,  I thanked the organist for the opportunity to work with him and hope to hear from him soon - so I left and not ten minutes later, I get a phone call from him " Do you miss me yet?" he said.. I started laughing, he then said.. "what are you doing tomorrow at 3:30?"  I responded well I have mass at 5pm at my church, but I think I am working for you at 3:30- he responded "excellent" it was a wedding.  I think we are going to have a lovely working relationship!

It is good to have an Agent that is a funeral home director.. (yeah, that is still weird to say)

Peace, love and coffee

Meliss-

Luck of the Spanish?

Well, it is St. Patty's day and of course I was asked to sing a funeral today.  Father Julio was presiding.. I just love him, so full of life and wonderful. The decease was Raphael - it was a cremation.  So that is a little different - They start the funeral the same way as with a casket, but with the urn.  So the funeral went along as normal - there were two readings, a psalm, the Gospel and then of course the homily.  And as I was sitting there I realized that Father Julio was delivering the homily in Spanish, which is totally cool.  So I leaned over to my organist and said.. "Hey, do you understand what he is saying?" You see our new organist is married to this incredible lady whose family is Colombian - so you would think he would understand some of it - but his response was " they are talking way too fast for me - I do better with people who talk very slowly.. you know, like first year Spanish students" I tried so hard not to laugh..man this guy is funny - so glad we have him!

Anywho, back to our story-  So Father Julio was giving his homily, in Spanish, and after he finished - the service went on.  Sometimes I look ahead at the music to see what is coming up - and there I saw it.. Oh Danny Boy.  Yes, I said it. Oh Danny Boy.  All I could think of was the Muppet's version of Oh Danny Boy..  Oh .. boy oh boy....

But more than that,  here it was St. Patty's Day, a funeral for clearly a Spanish man, and I am singing Oh Danny Boy.  I truly cannot get much better than that.. unless they wanted Hava nagila as their sending song.  Could you imagine?

I do hope that everyone had a safe St. Patty's day..

Peace, love and coffee

Meliss-

Fin.... we will miss you...

Well, as most of you know, when Blackeye, my son's goldfish,  died it was pretty traumatic.  But, like a trooper, he set up the whole funeral (read fish funeral).  Well, unfortunately, our latest goldfish Fin passed away yesterday morning before school.  So I asked J if he wanted to give him a burial at sea, which he replied "No, Mommy, I don't want the sharks to eat him." I responded "well that is fine, what would you like to do" and of course he said that he wanted to bury Fin next to blackeye in the backyard (who knew that I would have a fish cemetary - seriously, you can't make this up) So we went out back and I dug a hole next to where Blackeye is and then J said.. "Mommy we have to call daddy, he should be here don't you think?" So J called my husband and J said "Daddy you should pull over" (he was on his way to school) And of course D could not pull over because he was on a major highway, so I said.. "Daddy can't pull over sweetheart.. but I am sure he will say a prayer for Fin".. So Jake put the cell phone on speaker and my husband started to say a prayer for the dead.  When it was over, J thanked his dad and then we both took a shovel of dirt and buried Fin. 

And of course, in true J fashion, he said " we should say a few words about Fin"  I said. "great .. you go first"  So J goes on to say  - "Fin, we loved having you around .. I am sure Tiger will miss you ... but now you can swim and have fun with Blackeye  - ok, mommy your turn".. I was speechless.. so profound and cool for an 8 year old. so I responded.. "Fin.. we will miss you....

Then we came inside and Jake got ready for school.. good think I did not put any goldfish crackers in his lunch... whew.

My son is awesome.

That's right, I said, Fish Funeral...

I knew it would happen and I dreaded the day when we would lose our first pet.  It was in the afternoon and I went into my son's room and I could only see one fish swimming in the tank - "where was the other one, " I thought.. I was looking frantically, then I glanced down on the bottom of the tank - and there he was .. Blackeye .. so listless, so free.. how were we going to tell our son - my husband called Jake to his room and explained to him that Blackeye had indeed died. He was so sad, devastated.   But as we wiped his tears away, he decided that he wanted to go and plan a funeral for Blackeye - and boy did he.

First of all, he said to me "Mommy, since you sing funerals all the time, are you available to sing for Blackeye's? " "of course, " I said.. "anything for Blackeye"

So the planning began -  who was invited, and who will talk. - It was all planned out.

The day finally came and my son brings to me a drawing of how he wanted Blackeye's altar/Bima to look - He comes into the room all proud and says "OK, mom, do you think you can make this?" I said sure - so I proceeded to make this Altar/Bima out of cardboard, I covered it with paper and my son decorated it - he then said he had to go and get drinks and snacks out for after the service.  Pretzels and your choice of Almond Milk, Water, or orange juice.

After this was all done, I told him that maybe he would like to write a little something about Blackeye to share with us - He decided to write a poem..  I was so proud of him - not only writing the poem - but it was such a great way for him to have closure with his first pet. 

So now it was time for "the people" to come - the people included my husband and I, our neighbor, his daughter (who is 23) and Arlo, the dog.  It was so sweet for them to come over for the service.

So the service begins and my son welcomes everyone - "Thank you for coming to Blackeye's service"

and proceded to say - "why don't we go around the room and all say something about Blackeye.  And  each of us said something - to the tune of  "Blackeye always looked so happy swimming around with Tiger" or "I remember when Blackeye first came home from the pet store".. very sweet sentiments -

So then it was J's turn to get up and talk about his pet.  He did so by reciting the poem he wrote:

Blackeye, Blackeye he's so great

Blackeye, Blackeye, he was in shape

Blackeye Blackeye he's so great

Blackeye, Blackeye I loved you so

Blackeye, Blackeye why did you have to go

Blackeye, Blackeye I love you so

As he is reading it - I am thinking.. "really, is this my kid?" I was so proud of him..That poem was so sweet and sentimental -  unreal for an 8 year old.  He then proceded to ask his Dad (my husband) to recite the mourner's Kaddish - so D did that - and J was very serious and tried to say it with him - our neighbors kind of just went with it. LOL

Anywho - then it was time to go outside and bury Blackeye - we all went out there (even the dog) and I had predug a hole for the funeral. As we lowered him in (ok, we opened the box and dropped him in ) Jake said "would anyone like to see him again before we bury him?"  We all passed on that offer - so we burried the little goldfish with the big  black eyes -  and then one by one, we threw a little dirt in the grave.  I finished the job -

My husband said - shouldn't we sing or something - and so he started to sing "Soon and very soon" A gospel tune - how perfect - and right when we were done singing.. Arlo took a crap. Yep.. right out there.. just proving that life 'moves' on.. ok, It was hysterical.. but when you have to go you have to go. - As we had a little laugh about that  - we all went back inside and just hung out -


See, now I can add "pet funeral singer" on my resume'.

Blackeye, we miss you but we did get a new fish - Fin - and Tiger and Fin are getting along swimingly.

;)

Peace, love and coffee-
Melissa-