{"id":6070,"date":"2013-11-02T17:37:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T23:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6070"},"modified":"2013-11-02T17:45:34","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T23:45:34","slug":"the-day-of-the-dead-post-that-was-not-written","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6070","title":{"rendered":"The Day of the Dead Post that was not Written"},"content":{"rendered":"

This would have been the perfect writing prompt for a Day of the Dead post: a big family memorial service for my uncle Jim, my mother’s younger brother, once well-known in the Denver legal scene.<\/p>\n

But I am not writing that post, full of ancestral stuff.<\/p>\n

He died in September, in Sun City, Arizona, where he lived after retirement, but the memorial was delayed until today, for reasons that I am not privy to.<\/p>\n

His brother, Robert, told me that his ashes would be interred in a columbarium at the Episcopal cathedral in Denver. Columbarium <\/a>is Latin for pigeonhole or dovecote, basically. Depending on the design, your “cremains” go into something like a post office box.<\/p>\n

Robert had said that Jim’s would be placed with those of his mother and sister. These compartments are built under a broad sidewalk. As a high school senior, visiting the cathedral during some sort of humanities class trip devoted to ecclesiastical architecture, my girlfriend and I danced up and down that sidewalk, because I wanted to say that I had danced on my mother’s grave \u2014 in advance.<\/p>\n

My mother and I were not too close.<\/p>\n

When she died, I did the medical power-of-attorney thing, making last decisions at the hospital, and then handled her estate, but that was out of filial duty \u2014 and neither of my sisters wanted the job. They had their own issues with our mother.<\/p>\n

Although I take after my mother’s family physically, I am not too close to them either \u2014 even though I have about twenty cousins on that side. For some reason, Uncle Robert never emailed the final details about the service and reception, and it says something that I did not know whom to call. Nor was I about to drive 150 miles to Denver and then hang around the cathedral, waiting.<\/p>\n

Besides, had I gone, I would have missed the neighbors’ Bonfire Night party. (She’s British, in case you’re wondering.) As I started writing this post, with the front door standing open for the afternoon warmth, I heard a chainsaw whining in the distance \u2014 probably Bernie cutting more wood for a big<\/em> fire. It’s a tradition on our road, and I wonder who the “Guy” tossed into the fire will be this year.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year’s party came a week after the forest fire, and the party-goers were split between the people who still had their homes and those who did not but came anyway.<\/p>\n

This year, anyway, the village<\/a> is more important than distant kin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This would have been the perfect writing prompt for a Day of the Dead post: a big family memorial service for my uncle Jim, my mother’s younger brother, once well-known in the Denver legal scene. But I am not writing that post, full of ancestral stuff. He died in September, in Sun City, Arizona, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,35,66],"class_list":["post-6070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-day-of-the-dead","tag-halloween"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1zU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12059,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12059","url_meta":{"origin":6070,"position":0},"title":"Christmas, When the Veil is Thin","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In December (yeah, this is late) I was tapped by a public library in Oregon to give an hour's Zoom lecture on the \"Pagan origins of Christmas.\" I did it, but that format is still pretty weird. How many people are watching? Three? Thirty? Three hundred? And are they awake?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Christmas-eve-lantern-1-238x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3295,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3295","url_meta":{"origin":6070,"position":1},"title":"Feed Them to Samhain","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, really, if you get lost in a corn maze and you are such a hopeless loser that you call the police to come get you, shouldn't you be fed to \"Samhain, Lord of the Dead\"? But then Midwest Chick offers another possible solution. Sort of related: I passed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10966,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10966","url_meta":{"origin":6070,"position":2},"title":"Interview with Carl Weschcke’s Biographer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I once stayed a couple of nights at Carl Weschcke's house, when he lived out in Marine on St. Croix, and on the drive back and forth to the old Llewellyn Publications office in St. Paul I heard a lot of his stories \u2014 but I am sure there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/melanie-marquis.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":324,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=324","url_meta":{"origin":6070,"position":3},"title":"La Virgen as a Goddess\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"La Virgen as a Goddess Today's Denver Post dips a toe into the water with this story suggesting the the Virgin of Guadalupe might be a goddess--or at least a pop icon. \"Many of us are working to claim her larger cosmological meaning as earth mother,\" says scholar China Galland,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1273","url_meta":{"origin":6070,"position":4},"title":"One Night during the Cold War","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I was walking around today in Manitou Springs, once a spa-resort town, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. You should know that there are no springs in Colorado Springs--real-estate developers lied in the 1870s too. The springs are in Manitou. But Colorado Springs has several important military installations:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6833,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6833","url_meta":{"origin":6070,"position":5},"title":"Beware of Fake Priests in Cemeteries*","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Superintendent Lucio Rosaroso Jr., Chief Directorial Staff of the Chaplain Service, warned the public to be wary of con artists who make money from performing priestly duties. In an interview, Rosaroso said these criminals usually strike during the All Souls\u2019 Day and All Saints\u2019 Day holiday when people flock to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Day of the Dead\"","block_context":{"text":"Day of the Dead","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=day-of-the-dead"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6070"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6074,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070\/revisions\/6074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}