Sunday was the memorial service for my uncle. All my siblings arrived from out of state, and we dressed in our funeral best and headed for Ann Arbor once again. It was a gray day, with intermittent rain, appropriate for a funeral I guess. My sister was asked by my aunt to play the bagpipes prior to the service and after its conclusion. I was her handler, helping her warm up, giving her cues to begin playing, opening doors for her as she moved into and out of the small country church where the memorial was being held.

The church organist was playing the piano before the service; it sounded beautiful, even to me standing outside the closed front doors of the sanctuary. It reminded me of Mom playing at her small rural church, which got me on a bit of a tearful train of thought. Also appropriate for a funeral I guess. Then my cousin began to ring the steeple church bell, and the peals rang out into the misty evening air. As the tones faded away I gave the cue to my sister and she began to play her bagpipes; the three hymns requested by my aunt. It suddenly seemed so very sad. And in those moments the overwhelming feelings from the last four weeks of crazy hopes and sad resignation, of family gatherings, of all the final goodbyes swept over me in a rush. And as the tears fell and the rain began to drizzle I let it all just flow out of me in a final remembrance of my Uncle Bill.

My sister, sister-in-law and I drove home together after the service. We took the back roads, traveling past farms and small communities. We could see dark skies ahead, and to our east glimpses of a rainbow. As we moved beyond the trees we realized the rainbow was huge…and that we could see both ends of it across the fields. We pulled off the road and tried to take pictures, but it was so immense that it was impossible to capture it all. Other cars stopped as well and people stood in awe of this mighty rainbow. The three of us commented that perhaps this rainbow had been sent from Uncle Bill, as a gift to us. When it faded we continued on our way, and found ourselves stopped in traffic a bit further on. The cause for the delay was emergency personnel in several official vehicles who had the road closed due to a traffic accident. The ambulance coming toward us was moving slowly but with lights flashing. Either the person inside wasn’t injured too badly, or he was injured so badly that speed didn’t matter. We never found out.

In the end we agreed that the beautiful rainbow, larger and more intense than any other I had ever seen, might well have been a gift from Uncle Bill, used as a tactic to make sure we weren’t at the wrong place at the wrong time when the traffic accident occurred. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

Bye Uncle Bill. Missing you already.