The Flag, the Funeral and the Conference

Posted on by jsudar

Last week was hectic. Really hectic.

Monday: Packed for a week’s trip. Finished running errands and getting ready by 1am.

Tuesday: Up at 6am. Out the door by 7:30am. Funeral at 11:45am at Ft. Logan in Denver. After the funeral, the Thomas family, Dan and I went out for breakfast/lunch at the Littleton Cafe, which use to be an IHOP. In fact, it was the IHOP that John and I use to go to for breakfast before speech meetings. It was great. Granted, the cafe was probably glad when the 22-23 of us finally left.  After that, we headed over to Judy’s house and visited for a while. When Dan and I got ready to leave, Erin asked me to wait. He had something for me. It was the flag that he’d been presented with as eldest son. He said that as I had been the military wife for 17 years, that I should have it.

John Thomas' flag

Later that night, we went to the wake held by the SCA. It was lovely. Lots of good food, friends and drink.

Wednesday: After sleeping in, and a brief trip to IKEA, we headed to Colorado Springs for the CASB conference. We checked into the hotel and collapsed.

Thursday-Sunday: The Colorado Association of School Boards 75th Annual Winter Conference. It was a good one. I didn’t get elected to the CASB board, but I will run again next year. Learned a lot. Saw a lot of people and made some new connections. I will have a bunch of stuff to tell my board.

Today. Catch up day. Job day. Deal with insurance day. My head is spinning and it isn’t even noon yet. Oh, and the week isn’t slowing down yet. Tomorrow is the school board meeting. Wednesday, we go shopping in Pueblo. Saturday is John’s memorial down here at the library. sigh….

Community

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Today,was one of those days when you’re glad to be a part of something. Eric D’Ambrosia’s funeral was today. It was held up in Gardner at Gardner School. It was the only place big enough to hold all the people. Dan and I figured that there were over 300 people there. Students, teachers, friends, neighbors and family.

However, for one small span of time, we were all family. Eric was a friend, a brother, a son to everyone in that room. Sitting there listening to the Rosary you could feel the bonds grow stronger. As the Memorial mass went on, and Fr. Frias spoke, everyone blended together. When his aunt Cathy spoke the eulogy, with his sister Susan by her side, we all cried as family. While his death was a terrible blow, it brought so many people together as community.

At the graveside and later at the community center where food was provided for everyone, people shared stories, hugs, tears and memories. People who hadn’t seen each other in ages hugged and chatted like it had only been a day.

It was a sad day. It was also a beautiful day. My only sorrow is that it took the death of a beautiful young man to bring us all together.