I was at a memorial service today for an in-law’s brother. It was very moving – he was a Vietnam-era veteran who’d been an alcoholic living on the streets for years, then finally joined AA and got sober.
I really like AA people. The ones who really follow the program aren’t into small talk; they don’t speak in sarcasm, or passive aggression. They’re some of the best people I know, and I figured this service wouldn’t be your typical boring program. It wasn’t.
I was impressed by the diverse crowd that turned out. You could tell a lot of them were lawyers (the service was held at a church in the county seat) – and a lot of them were not. The ones who got up to speak talked unashamedly about their love for Snake (whose real name was Chuck). They talked about how he’d changed their lives, how open and generous of spirit he was, how hard he worked to be of service to others and how much he taught them.
It doesn’t get much better than than, does it? Everyone should have a sendoff that beautiful and heartfelt. Sometimes you go to funerals where you struggle to think of something nice to say about the deceased, but this wasn’t one of them.
