The Lost Funeral Procession

Last week I did a funeral for a really nice lady I used to go to church with. She lived to be a ripe, old age and I had no doubt about her spiritual condition. She had three grown children who all serve the Lord, and I had done the funeral for her husband nearly a year ago. So, as funerals go, this one promised no drama. Sure enough, the service went smoothly enough and we went to the cars to proceed to the cemetary. I was told to fall in immediately behind the hearse and I did so. We headed out on a direct route to the cemetary, which was about 4 miles from the funeral home. We had the obligatory police escort, and since I was near the front, I watched the interaction and strategy employed as one would stop traffic while the other  would lead the procession. When the procession passed, the policeman in the intersection would then zoom past the procession in time to do it all again at the next intersection. It was all quite ordinary until we turned north on  County Line Road. There was a flashing sign telling us that the road was closed ahead and to take a different route. I thought to myself, "We have a police escort. They must already have this all figured out." I began to suspect that something was up when one of the policemen pulled alongside the guy driving the hearse and the guy on the hearse suddenly got on his phone. We reached the end of the block and sure enough the road ended. We made a right turn into Rambling Acres neighborhood. All eleven cars in the procession. We slowed nearly to a stop as high school students were walking home from school and didn't know the protocol involving funeral processions wandering through neighborhoods. We made a turn into what I was sure was a cul de sac but it did turn us back south (away from the cemetary.) We circled the block then finally found a neigbhorhood street which would eventually take us to Britton Rd. Of course, Britton Road is under a massive amount of construction as it was the reason the road was closed back at the beginning. We made our way through the narrow labyrinth of orange barrels, made a left turn onto Council and then another left onto Northwest Highway. Finally we made it to the cemetary. The police escort bid their adieu to the guy from the funeral home and made their exit, leaving him to explain to everyone what had just happened. He handled it very well and the family was very gracious and got a good chuckle at getting lost on the way to the graveyard. You never know when a day begins just how it will end.