A Dilemma

[WAHOONBOX]

BILL FRANCE LIVED HIS LIFE TO THE MAX....

SEND THE CARD....CALL THE FAMILY AFTER THE FUNERAL... DEDICATE YOUR NEXT VICTORY TO THE FAMILY....AND CONTINUE TO MAKE YOUR LIVING WHILE IN JERSEY....

PLAIN & SIMPLE.....

OR ....THE FAMILY JET CAN COME PICK YOU UP...........AGAIN....PLAIN & SIMPLE

VERY FEW CAPTAINS AND MATES CAN AFFORD TO ATTEND EACH AND EVERY PASSING OF FRIENDS...


YOU CELEBRATED HIM WHILE HE WAS LIVING...SO.....ENOUGH SAID

[knot for shore]

if you just can't make it, make a few calls to check on whomever you're closest to. i'd appreciate being checked on a couple times during a time like this. especially since you're close to them. a card with a well written condolence will suffice along with the calls.

[Squidnation]

Deep this is just my opinion and had you not written such a nice synopsis of your family ties I would think otherwise. Their is no bowing out - period. I personally would put everything else on hold and attend the funeral. I learned long ago that some things can be missed - Christmas parties and birthdays - so long as it isn't 100 birthday. Their are somethings you don't miss - Close funerals, birth of your child, close weddings and your parents 25, 50th and 75th wedding anniversary. Money can be made tomorrow. Just the fact that you are pondering the rightfulness of missing it tells me you will eventually regret it if you did. I would.

[OCcaptain]

Bill, I agree completly. I missed a friend's mothers funeral a few years ago just to go fishing and felt like crap about it. Especially when he showed up at my Dad's funeral a few months ago. I still feel guilty about it.

[Nanjemoycat]

Find a way, the quilt will eat you up. A funerul is for the living, not the dead. If your family's were that close, you gotta be there.

[scotty2]

Might have to suck it up. skip. You'll feel like a real turd if you don't go.

[dman25]

Some things a man just can't miss.

[Proheat]

Deep- I have to side with Bill (squidnation). Sure everyone has to work to make a living, but this funeral will only happen once. I understand your situation, but still feel that somehow, someway, you should be there.

This is just my opinion.
Also, when are the services?

[hotshot1]

Not knowing anybody here, I would go with the phone calls and the picture(but go to a photo place and get a copy for you send them the original) I have lost both Parents and all GP's and I couldn't tell you who was there and who wasn"t. I feel funerals are for the Families especially if it is a large family and a person as high profile as this it will likely be a madhouse. I would think that come weeks from now when things settle down, all the flowers are gone the mass cards are in the garbage, your heart felt letter and picture won't be. I only saved the written letters at my Dads funeral and still bring them out 9 years later not knowing who came or didn't come, I think thats over rated, the family knows you care. I would not feel Guilty, sad that I couldn't go , but by no means guilty.

My 2 cents, as meaningless as it may be.

[Deep C]

Talked with a couple of their family and passed on my sentiments. Writing letters tonight... There will be a bunch of functions between now and saturday... My missus, mom and mini will be representing us... I have missed funerals before and yeah it sucks but this will be such a production my presence there or not won't even be noticed...
I'll make time in my schedule to sit with the family one on one around the Pepsi 400 time... Right now its nuts on that end... been there and done that. When my Dad passed it was crazy for quite a while. Several hundred calls to notify and several hundred more comming in to wish condolences... Then the press interviews were if anything insensitive to our need for a bit of quiet time.
After things cooled down, the close ones became important in the healing process... I can remember some of the people at the funeral but those that came later stand out as pillars of support...