A Funeral

A friend called to see if I wanted to go to a funeral this week-end. Yes, yes anything to get out of the house for a while.  The father of another one of the high school friends had passed away.  The friends name is Ross W. (I'm getting a little shy about using full names) and his father was Charles.
His dad was a self-made millionaire.  He had worked hard probably in the 50's to establish a bottling business making M&S Soda.  We call it pop in the Midwest.  He also bottled 7-up.  He was a friendly guy usually wearing slacks and a golf shirt.  It was great stopping by Ross's house. They had air conditioning and a T.V. room.  If you wanted pop there was a supply in the basement.  
Ross had a younger sister and an older brother.  One day we were coming back to his house and noticed fire engines in the neighborhood.  The fire was at their house.  A guitar was damaged from the heat and flames and had been set out on the front lawn.  Ross said I could have it so I took it home and eventually repaired it.  I still have it. 


The family always had the latest cars and usually one of them was a convertible.  Ross loved to drive fast and now, that the old man is dead, I can tell you that he would go out and drive the cars well over 100 mph.  They were play things.  Luckily no one got hurt.  Ross is super intelligent and had stamp collections and coin collections.  If he was in need of some cash he would visit a collector in (I believe) the Kresge Building in downtown Flint.  Reynolds Stamps as I recall and being too lazy to research I'll leave it at that.  Ross talked to Mr. Reynolds and knew what he was talking about. He would sell some of his items and we'd leave with a bit of cash.  Ross is a doctor.  I'll see if he's retired today.  We want to see Ross today and pay our condolences.  It was a previous life that my wife and family didn't know about but now, If they read this they will be able to connect some dots.

Things worked out well at the funeral. We were able to see and speak to Ross beforehand and didn't have to sit through the service.  Ross gave me a hug when I told him who I was.  He was glad we had come out.  He is retired (for medical reasons) but happy with his situation right now. He looks good.  Still has that same smile like the cat who just ate the canary.  It was nice to see you, Ross.Adios