The good news, for me, is that my uncle's funeral services are over. The bad news is that my siblings and I were quite upset by my father's state. He is very unwell and his return to drinking is exacerbating it. Everyone seemed to know about his alcoholism. If they didn't, they witnessed inappropriate and odd behavior. It was embarrassing behavior. I mean more for him, though I'm not sure he was "with it" enough to really feel the embarrassment. I won't say my siblings and I were exactly embarrassed, but we were in distress about him and very very sad. The day was to mourn the loss of my uncle. So very often, my father manages to make some situations all about himself.

The service was handled nicely, for the most part. My aunt had a lovely idea of having my uncle's last harpsichord that he made brought to the service. She asked a friend to play a couple pieces, including my uncle's favorite Bach piece that he used to play. After the minister spoke, about 5 people stood up and gave short eulogies. My father stood up. Everyone assumed he would speak, but he said he was just standing for standing sake. It was highly peculiar! It seemed more like awkward lurking. Then he, out of the blue, said a short statement that was totally inappropriate. It was like "Ugh!!!!" to me. So much so that I, myself, stood up and spoke for a bit. I'm normally not at all fond of public speaking, but I did it anyway to try to save face for my side of the family. There were about 100 people there listening. Somehow I managed quite well and a number of people I didn't even know complimented my little eulogy afterwards.

I'm not even going to go into what happened at the post service reception/meal. Dad was horrible! Horrible!

As final words in this post, alcohol abuse is tragic not only for the abuser, but everyone who loves that abuser.