The first stop on our trip will be Ohio. This will be a bittersweet time for us. We rarely see our Buckeye family and Dad was always the reason for us to get together. I have developed a great fondness for Ohio, and especially for our relatives there. I am also flying my daughter, her husband and her son back for this weekend. It will be a good time for them to connect with these relatives. We will put Dad in the family plot and have a memorial service and dinner reception at the family church. From there we will go on to France for two weeks, and then I will stay on another week and go to Ireland.
Dad had overplanned his burial. He paid for it over forty years ago when his lover died unexpectedly and, in addition to sudden overwhelming grief, Dad and family members had to make all kinds of funeral arrangements. Then there were some disagreements about assets, and ultimately friendships were lost. At that time Dad promised himself he would never cause that type of distress when he passed. Everything was in a nice neat brown binder entitled 'Solutions'. When Dad passed, I picked up the binder, called the funeral home, and everything fell smoothly into place. Dad's ashes were delivered in a faux wood box wrapped in a lush green velvet drawstring bag. An envelope with papers was attached to the box. As Dad had also arranged to share the final space in the family plot in the little village where he was raised in Ohio, I had to take the ashes back for burial. I didn't know how to take them through airport security or what rules there were about transporting human remains. I called the funeral home. I called the airlines. In the end I found that transported remains can only be ashes and have to be in a container that is not metal. They will be scanned, and I have to count them as a carry-on. In fact, they are in my carry-on. They are heavy. I hope I have done my homework correctly on this one. This is one thing that should not get messed up.
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