My dad died a year ago December.
The town he used to live in has a population of about 1000 people and there is not a whole lot to do there, especially in the winter. Thursdays aren't too bad because the Canadian Tire flyer comes in the mail and you'll have something to discuss over dinner. "Hey Honey, look. They've got them
beer-coolers-you-plug-into-the-cigarette-lighters on sale".
Needless to say, when someone dies in that town it's a community event; particularly when they die like my dad did. He was relatively young (he had just turned 56 the week before his death), he was
from away (my family had only lived in the town for about 20 years so we were still considered newcomers) and he had a heart attack while drive driving through town and had crashed into a snow bank in front of
the local arena.
The enitre expierience was bizarre to say the least.
This woman who was my dad's best friend from childhood toted all his old
memoriabilia down to the funeral home and propped all this shit up around his coffin to make it look like he lead this facinating, full life that he was so tragically snatched from. Nobody mentioned that all the ephemera was at least 15 years old. Nobody mentioned that for the past 2 decades the man had done nothing but slowly evaporate into a whiff of scotch breath.
But of course, you can't say that kind of thing as the daughter can you?
The viewing took place, off and on, for two days before the funeral. It snowed like crazy on that second day but luckily my brother-in-law had plowed my dad's driveway the day before so nobody had any real trouble getting up to the house after the viewing. It had been a long day. My sister had given birth to my niece only 10 days before and she and I were both expected to be on-hand to greet people and make small talk: "Yes, he was so young", "Thank you very much for coming", "No, I'm the one from Vancouver". Many people from the town and outlying areas came to the viewing despite the bad weather. It was nice to see that people made the effort, but some of the people who showed up were fully odd.
There was this one grisled, old women in a greasy sweatshirt and snow boots who stayed ALL DAY...both days. She lives in a house up the road from my dad's and is well known for having more illegitimate grandchildren than she does teeth. She held no particular affection for my family that I was aware of but hey, there was free coffee and finger sandwiches and every once in a while someone would start bawling. That's quality entertainment...well, it's at least as good as the
North of 60 re-runs that she would have gotten had she stayed home.
When we got back to my dad's place on the night before the funeral it was dark and cold in the house. The fire in the furnace had obviously gone out sometime in the early afternoon. I remember watching my sister take the baby out of her car seat in the dining room and hearing her ask, "Mike, did you leave the tractor lights on?". My dad's old International tractor was parked behind the house to make room in the front for all the vehicles we expected the next day. "What?" Mike had asked. "The lights on the tractor are on." she repeated. He didn't say anything, he just turned and went back outside.
I credit my brother-in-law, Mike, for weirding us all out. He is a big, no nonsense guy from Calgary. He doesn't pull any punches and he doesn't take any shit. When he stepped back into the house, he was pale and a little tongue tied. We all just kinda looked at him for a beat and then he said "I know those lights were off yesterday when I was finished plowing the driveway and there are no foot prints around the tractor." He looked expectantly at each of us in turn.
My mom was the first to speak. "Maybe there was some moisture on the wiring...". Mike looked pointedly at her. "The lights were phyically turned on." he said, making a twisting gesture with his wrist. My sister asked again, "You're sure you turned them off yesterday?"
"Yes," Mike said emphatically, "because I never turned them
on in the first place. Besides the battery in that thing would've been dead hours ago." We all just looked at each other. Mike finally said into the cold house, "I think Wayne is trying to let us know
he's here".
