by Patty E Padgett

Created on: September 15, 2010

PAPA'S FUNERAL: 

That’s my Grandfather laying in that coffin. I call him Papa. He called me his buddy, his pal. He is my Mama’s daddy. I looked at him and he wasn’t smiling. Papa always smiled. Why is he looking so sad now? He always told me that going to Heaven was something he was looking forward to; going to see Grandma again. So, why isn’t he smiling about it?

Papa came to live with us when he got sick. Before that, I went to visit him on his farm a lot and he taught me to fish and bait my own hook. He had a lot of dogs for me to play with and a few kitties too. I am only eight years old but Papa said when I got older he would teach me to hunt. Then, he got sick and he couldn’t play with me anymore or teach me new things. He sat in his old recliner that he brought with him and read the paper or watched TV. Sometimes he had to stay in bed. That was what he called his “bad days”. He wouldn’t let Mama punish me, no matter what. But I wasn’t really bad anyway. I didn’t want to upset Papa and wanted him to be proud of me.

Daddy is fun too but he doesn’t know the things that Papa knew. Daddy is what Papa called a ‘city boy’.

That lady in the back of church. She is crying really hard. I don’t know her. I heard Mama say she had no right to be here. After the funeral, I will ask Mama about her. I can’t ask her now ‘cause she keeps cryin’ and doesn’t want to talk much.

I hope this doesn’t take long. This suit is hot and makin’ me itch. We still have to go to the cemetery. I don’t want to watch them put him in the ground. That will make me really sad. It’s goin’ to be hard seein’ his old chair when we get back home. I hope Daddy has taken it away. He was still at the house when Mama and I left. Maybe that’s why he stayed behind and came later. He’s here now but I don’t think I can ask him. I have to be quiet like when we’re at church.

I wonder why people have to die. Do they have to make room for all the new babies being born? Does some have to leave before others can come? I guess I’ll never understand.

Oh, now the preacher is starting to talk. Mama just punched me and told me to quit wigglin’. I didn’t know I was. I guess I am just nervous about not havin’ Papa around anymore. Life sure ain’t gonna’ be the same.

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