Monday, May 23, 2011

More of the same

I promise...I'll just post these last few pictures and comments and then I'll move on. The folks who handled Dad's funeral did an excellent job we thought. They wanted to print a program and also make a special picture to be displayed. They had lots of images and poems, etc. for us to choose from, but were most helpful when we asked if we could do something special. We tried our best to include family in what we did. I think Dad would be happy with the result.

First the special display picture:

verlinmemorabilia-1.jpg

This is a combination of things. My brother is an excellent artist. When I looked at some of the paintings on his website , I found a beautiful painting that I thought would make a great background. Happily, my brother agreed that we could use it. The poem is adapted from one written by Dad's father many years ago. We just substituted Dad's name into the poem.



Mom and Dad were married in the Logan Temple, so for the cover of the program we used another of my brother's paintings...one which hangs in their living room.



Then for the funeral program, we included many family members.



"Whispering Hope" has been Dad's favorite song for many years, so it was a treat for all of us to hear it done by another brother who has a beautiful singing voice.

We were offered the opportunity to display some items of memorabilia before the funeral.



Included were family pictures, a family tree, pictures of 2 cabins where he spent some leisure time, jewelry created from rocks that he had made, his chemistry books, information on the patents he held on various medications he helped to develop, a fishing picture from his trips to Alaska, a name tag from his time serving as a temple worker, military memorabilia and a cowrie shell necklace that he made for Mom while he was in the military on the island of Guam during World War II.




He was buried with military honors. Mom received the flag as well as the shell casings from the ceremony.

As a parting thought, the last few days of Dad's life were not easy. During those days, he received many visitors and expressions of love and caring. One morning as I sat with him, one of his grandchildren asked me to read a couple of verses of scripture to him. As I read to him, it gave us both comfort.

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes."

He did endure his life well. We look forward to being reunited with him someday.

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