Bev's Funeral

As you know, Jim and I went to Gloucester yesterday to attend Bev's funeral Mass.  It seemed a little crazy to go out and back in one day just for this but we both felt very strongly that it was something we needed to do.  Tim and Emmy had informed us they weren't going to be able to go as they were in New Hampshire with Cathy, Chris and the children, so Tim said it was up to us to "represent".  This is a term I see a lot in the Good Morning Gloucester blog so I really felt right at home doing so. 

The Mass was at St. Ann's church and since I'd never been there, I was looking forward to being in this church as it was certainly the site of many historic events in Gloucester history.  You may have seen it in The Perfect Storm movie.  It was bright and sunny yesterday and our trip was easy, even with a 4 AM departure.  The Good Morning Gloucester blog informed me there was to be a lunar eclipse just before sunrise around 7 AM so I brought my camera just in case.  (PS I nodded off and missed it)

We arrived about a half hour prior to the service and entered the church to find Uncle Peter.  He was in deep discussion with Bev's family about a missing brother who was supposed to deliver the eulogy but didn't get off the train he was supposed to be on.  So his mind wasn't really on greeting us and we took him a little by surprise.  Regardless, we did get to talk with him a bit before he had to go attend to other duties.  He looks pretty good--handsome haircut, nice suit.  He is obviously very very sad and was a bit confused at the time which is very understandable.  He just can't imagine not seeing Bev every day.  He mentioned several times how good Bev had been to him.  Bev's daughter has been his rock and gave him lots of support during the Mass. 

The service was sparsely attended and there wasn't another soul there I knew besides Peter and Petey.  Three older people sat in front of us and talked loudly enough for us to plainly hear so we got the low-down on their observations.  They clearly knew Peter well but I don't know if they were Ryan family or not.  When there was some conversation that no one "from Peter's family" was there, Jim nearly tapped the guy on the shoulder to introduce ourselves to assure him the family was in attendance. 

The church is huge and fairly ornate.  The altar is very ornate, the floors are wooden planks I'm sure are very old.  The pews are the old fashioned straight back kind with the really short (in width) bench seat where you feel like you are only perched there instead of seated.  There are metal braces supporting the pews and holding them to the flooring and those braces appeared to be rather aged as well.  I tried to absorb the history of the place but failed a bit in that it's decorated for Advent and the sun shone through the windows just beautifully making it seem modern to me.  There weren't any maritime symbols that I noticed (and expected) other than a ship's bow type of holder for the statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on opposite sides of the altar. 

The service itself was most interesting.  The priest reminded me a great deal of John C. Reilly (from The Perfect Storm  and others) with the round face and closely cut beard.  He did not carry a Massachusetts accent and I found myself missing that.  I guess the missing brother did find his way to the church because when he was called up, he first seemed to chide Peter for not keeping him in the loop about Bev's condition (reprimand number one) then turned to the priest and requested the 107th Psalm which the poor priest was completely unprepared for.  And the guy just stood there and waited while the priest flipped through his books not saying anything about Bev.  It was an awkwardly long silence (reprimand number two) and if there had ever been any question in your mind that technology has not infiltrated every single pore of our lives, it was proven when someone on the altar whipped out his Smartphone to search the 107th Psalm for this guy.  I've never seen such a thing!  The old man in front of us whispered "The padre hasn't been here long enough to know the Fisherman's Prayer."   The brother left the altar after requesting the Psalm at some future time in memory of his sister.  And that was that until the priest invited everyone to Woodmore's in Essex ("Woodman's" several people corrected loudly--guy hasn't been here long enough to know).  I've never felt so sorry for a priest in my whole life.  We chuckled all the way home.

We needed to get back home and did not go to Essex.  We didn't know anyone anyhow and Peter had other business to attend to and shouldn't be needing to think about us.  Petey's daughter Savannah had a hard time staying still even to the point of joining her father up on the altar during the reading and peeking out from behind his leg --stinking cute but a little out of place.  Petey did a really nice job and he had his hands full stuck between taking care of two generations on his own.

So that's pretty much the report.  We represented and we were proud to.