Limousine

I pulled the grey suit from the closet I had hurriedly packed after I received that phone call from Robin a week ago.  My intuition had proven to be right about my need for it during this trip.  My self talk was one of disbelief that I was actually putting on a suit to attend the funeral of my son.  Not in all my years had I ever dreamed that a day like this would come.  I completed the half-Windsor knot in my tie and headed downstairs to wait for the driver to appear.  Candi was ready, nicely attired in her newly purchased dress and bargain shoes from Vinnies.  At exactly 12:20 p.m., the pre-arranged pick up time, my mobile phone rang.  Robin was calling to let me know that she had just heard from the driver, "Michael", and that he was lost.  My blood pressure immediately elevated about 20 points and I asked Robin to give the driver my cell number (which he should have had in any event) and decided to walk out the front of the townhouse to see if I could spot him.  After about 5 minutes I noticed a black stretch Cadillac limousine at the end of Taylor Street but driving past on Flinders.  I phoned Robin back to tell her to let Michael know he was in the neighborhood and I would wait out the front for him.  On his next pass he noticed me waiving my arms, I'm sure frantically, and he finally headed in our direction.  He pulled up in front of the doors and Candi and I entered the back of the car as he held the door.  Michael apologized, explaining that all the little streets, many of them being one-way in this neighborhood made it difficult to navigate such a large vehicle.  Since we were only about 10 minutes late at this point I wasn't particularly unnerved.

A limousine like this is truly obtrusive in Sydney.  Most of the vehicles, due to the cost of fuel and the lack of adequate parking, are much smaller than what we are used to in California.  I felt incredibly conspicuous riding in the back of the big black Cadillac.  As Michael neared Bexley North Candi let out a scream "It's Geoff" she hollered.  She startled me and I didn't have a clue to what she was referring.  She started to giggle with embarrassment at her own astonished reaction and pointed out that a moth was flying around in the back of the limo.  I assumed that relating my 10 minute dalliance in the concept of rebirth with the cockroach earlier in the week influenced her thought process.  Likewise, as with the little red bug in Darlinghurst, she didn't want me to smash the moth but she wasn't comfortable with it flying around in the back of the car, either.  I grabbed one of the glasses that are kept in the back of limos for happier trips and managed to trap the moth on the floorboard.  I noticed then that Michael seemed to be making more than the normal amount of turns than I thought were necessary to get from the main road to Robin's home.  It started to become apparent to me that he was lost again.  It proved to be only about a 5 minute diversion but I found myself wondering how a professional driver could get lost twice in the span of about an hour.  Nonetheless, we pulled up to the front of Robin's within a few minutes of the scheduled time.

Candi and I exited the limo and I released our captive friend outside the car.  We entered the front door and found Robin, Mag, Melissa and Jo all ready to take this next step in our challenging journey.  I checked my inside breast pocket for the printed version of my eulogy and after a few minutes of conversation confirming that everyone's individual assignments for the day were under control we took our places in the back of the Cadillac for the ride to Our Lady of Fatima.

It was a gorgeous early spring day in Sydney, warmer than I had anticipated with the sun shining brightly.  As we turned up the street in Kingsgove where the church was located I noticed that there seemed to be vehicles parked all along the road and quite a few people on foot heading in the direction of the church.  I found myself thinking that there must be something else scheduled at Our Lady of Fatima for the same day and started to worry about the availability of parking for those that would be attending Geoff's service.  As Micheal guided the limousine to a reserved spot in front it became apparent to me that all the cars I had seen and the people walking toward the church were there for the same reason based on the crowd of similarly attired people in front of the building.  Michael asked if we would like to stay in the car for a few minutes with the air conditioning running while he looked for Patsy Healy to make sure everything was in order before we exited the vehicle.  I think we all agreed we needed a few minutes to steel ourselves for the difficult hours ahead of us and we sat together in silence as he wandered off toward the vestibule of Our Lady of Fatima.