The next day..

My daughter arrived and we went to the funeral home to make arrangements for a memorial service to be in the late morning of December the 8th.The memory of that is all a blur to me.  I was depending on my daughter to get the facts right for the local newspaper and the Champaign News Gazette.

My sis and brother in law from West Virginia arrived a couple days later.  Rae helped me do everything that needed to be done, certified copies of the death certificate, etc.  And since Jim was a retired federal civil service worker, I spent hours on the phone for day getting his life insurance through the government straightened out.  I had to send a copy of everything to them to get  the insurance and my pension straightened out.  They were vey helpful and understanding.  I was doing all of this while I was still in a state of shock.

The day of the funeral there was still snow on the ground and it was bitter cold with the temp below zero.

“Temperatures -- The first several days of December were unseasonably cold, with a fresh snow cover helping to bring low temperatures even further downward. Peoria set a record low of 4 below zero on the 8th, and other locations along and west of the Illinois River fell below zero as well.”

My sis and her husband left to go home the day after the memorial service.

The ladies at the church had a lovely meal prepared for us.

The day after the memorial service everyone was gone.  I was alone.  beth