Dad's in a Box in the Spare Room, by Diane Ogden

So I was at a client's home today, one I visit every other week and have for about two years....Nice people.  These nice people's Father / Father-in-law moved in with them after his wife passed away last year.  I met him several times and we had many nice talks.  Me being a Hospice Care Volunteer in the past plus having a soft place in my heart for the elderly allowed me to be a good listener for him.  He seemed lonesome.... Everyone worked all day which left him home alone.  He died unexpectedly between one of my visits a few months ago.  He died of pneumonia but really he died of a broken heart.  He told me it wasn't supposed to be this way. He was older than his wife by many years and was supposed to go first.  But he didn't and he was unhappy, so he left the planet.

Today I walked into the spare bedroom, the one he used to live in and noticed a medium sized cardboard box on the dresser.  I have no idea why but I peeked at the label for some reason other than being nosie ....  It said, Contents of box: Father:  L. Raymond Lacy.  I got the God bumps all over my arms and then I got the hair standing on neck and then I said, "M a r i a, come here, Dad is here!"  She looked at me like I meant a ghost of Dad was in the room which meant she was not coming in there.  I said, "No not the ghost, the bones!"  She said, "OMG."   There we both stood peering into the UPS cardboard box, then at the white box and the label that said in black type, "Father."   I said, Jeezers, How long they gonna leave Dad in the box? I mean where's the Urn?"   Even little critters and big dogs get a little Urn and get set on the Mantle.... I told Maria I knew he wasn't in there, yet he was.  I knew his spirit was sailing free from that box, yet there he was.....bones, skin, hair, eyelashes, and so on. Sittin right there in that box. Probably the Urn was inside the white box that was inside the UPS cardboard box. The same man I visited with every other week for several months. So be it.  It's not my Dad so I had to let it go and move on and remember the living Dad I used to visit and not the one in the box.
This isn't a very happy news story, but it's darn straight a fact! Eeewww..