Tuesday morning we began sorting through HC Baker's "papers". I should actually say Emily began sorting! When you look up "organization" in the dictionary, Emily's picture appears. She began a spiral notebook Saturday morning after the accident and has it with her at all times. She is writing everything down so the rest of us will know when to be where to do whatever. We could not have made it without her. The first thing she found was the order of service for HC's funeral written by (drum roll please...) HC Baker. Imagine that! And that was only the beginning. You have no idea the other things we found. More about that later.
When we arrived at church, St. Matthews Baptist, Joyce Oliver, our Minister to Preschoolers and my dear friend, Tim Galyon, our incredible Minister of Musical Arts, and David Garrard, our Magical Minister to Children were all there to greet us. And they were thrilled when I handed them the outline for HC Baker's funeral. Speakers, types of music, hymns to be sung, when to pray, all the way to the benediction. I added the names of those participating and Tim told us if we stayed on task, the service should last one hour and fifteen minutes. He was happy and I thought he was dreaming! We established we wanted friends to express their sympathy, if desired, by donating to a mission fund at church and/or Habitat for Humanity. HC would be pleased.
Since HC Baker was the "cook" for so many events at the church, I wanted a meal after the service. A time for people to relax and remember the fun of HC's life. Many years ago he started a Men's Pizza Lunch at Clifton Pizza, a local neighborhood pizza restaurant. Mark was the owner and HC Baker loved Mark. The men met there every Thursday for lunch and prayer time. No women allowed! (I always thought HC considered all the women jealous of this weekly event, but actually we were glad the guys had somewhere to go for lunch on Thursday. If needed, we could skip making dinner that night telling them they had pizza for lunch and didn't need any dinner!!!!!) Anyway, someone at the church decided the lunch after HC's service should be a pizza lunch. Mark and Clifton Pizza would provide. Another blessing!
Visitation at the church Friday evening and Memorial Service Saturday morning with pizza lunch to follow. We spent the rest of the week together as a family, comforting each other, laughing, crying, and eating, the great southern bereavement tradition!!!! Friends came and went, some visits difficult and others refreshing. Each of us had our own personal fears about Friday night and Saturday morning. A huge unknown. I hate unknowns.
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