John Putnam's Journal
June 2, 2003
Day 8 - Monday, June 2nd, 2003 - Audrey and I got up and headed out for the day of lining things up. We went to the bank and to mom and dad's. We had to stop by the assisted care home my grandparents were living in to pay their rent. From there we went over to the funeral home. The lady that helped us there had already received some calls from people wanting to know if any arrangements had been made yet. She walked us through what all was going to happen. She gave advice on ordering death certificates and such. There is an application type form that mom and dad had to fill out for the death certificate. We got brochures with information on urns and accessories. From there we went to the church. They had heard already as well and were honored we would have the service there. Finally we made it to the florist. The florist actually knew Laura because her daughter went to high school with her and the cheered together. I told her that once mom was back in town, I would just send her over and they could work out the floral arrangements. We went by Phil's house to drop off his paycheck to his wife. She had come home with mom's childhood friend Sue Ann the day before. Another set of mom's friends, Michael and Mary from the day one story, lived down the street and deeply cared for our family and especially Laura. They came down. I remember trying to be pleasant with them because I knew people were not going to know what to say to us. I could not even get Michael to look at me. I was seeing people hurt more than I had ever experienced in my life. This man and his wife were absolutely devastated. We had done all we needed to do. We had made plans to meet one of our good friends for dinner that night. He and his girlfriend showed up. This man is one of the toughest people I know. He has struggled all his life and prevailed. He told me after a while that night that he has never cried so much in his life as he had cried that week. The whole night, his girlfriend, who is just as close and dear to us as he is, just sat there with a constant stream of tears running down her face. It was so sad to see them this upset.
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