I attended a visitation after work today for some dear friends who lost their son a couple of days ago. I avoid funeral homes, not only because of the memory-jogging grief that walking through the doors invokes, but also because they always seem so bleak and quiet, and they all have the distinctive, stale smell of old wood and cut flowers.

One pleasant sidebar about attending visitations/funerals is running into folks you haven’t seen in a long while. While I was waiting in [a very long] line, a lady who had retired a couple of years ago was talking to some colleagues ahead of me. She turned my way, and I waved. She blinked and literally did a double-take. “I didn’t recognize you!” she said as she hugged me. “Where’s the rest of you??” I had to laugh and told her that it was long gone and never coming back.

On an otherwise very somber occasion, it was nice to receive such a kind compliment from someone who hadn’t seen the 80 lb-lighter me.