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As I've thought about it, I certainly can go through a bunch of things that I remember about him over the past 40 years.
But I'm thinking about a slightly different approach. There is a lot of love in our family, but like most from the generations before us (Depression generation from my grandmother, WWII from parents), they never openly expressed it. Not like our more touchy feely generation.
In my mind, there are a lot of things that he would want to say to everyone in the hour before they put him in the ground. Mostly stuff about how, while he may not have openly showed it much, he loved and appreciated his family, particularly his wife, who deserves sainthood for how good she was to him. To not feel sorry for him, he had a very good life, tried to be a good man, appreciated everyone during his life and appreciates their coming to give their final goodbyes.
In that, I would weave some specific stories, like examples of how his wife was good to him, the things he enjoyed, etc.
Then ending with a short poem that I enjoy and find fitting.
My concerns thus far:
1. A little concerned that it might seem presumptuous to speak for someone like that. But I think I can make it come out right.
2. I am thinking one small spot of humor. Something like "I want to talk about what he would want to leave us with if he were here today. The first thing he would say, I'm certain, is 'Get up and talk in front of all these people, are you nuts?!?" (Because that's what he certainly would have said!). I'm just not sure if this is the time for any humor, though, and also if I'm met with dead (pun intended) silence, I'd be pretty rattled. I'm thinking I will leave that out, there are a lot of old people there, this is going to be a very somber event.
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