Amost a sad and bad deal

Thursday, last week, I got an early a.m. phone call prior to 7am.  I had just heard the fire alarm go off here in town.  On the phone was a first responder, asking me to come immediately to an address here in town.  I jumped up, dressed and went to the address given.  A man had died in his sleep, while setting in his recliner. His son had found him that morning.  I stayed at the home with the first responders and the ambulance crew.  We waited for the county coroner to show up and after all the necessities were done, his body was loaded and taken to the funeral home in a neighboring town.  While at the residence, I got another call to come to the local nursing home, to have prayer with a wife, whose husband was dying so, I left and went to the nursing home, met with the wife and had prayer with her, in her husband's room.

I watched the funeral home's website for the obituary and funeral arrangements of the man I had been at his home.  They published when he died, his family and survivors, the time of the service and the place of burial.  It never did list who was doing the funeral service.  I assumed the daughter's Pastor would do the funeral.

Tonight, as I was walking out the door, I met my oldest daughter on my porch.  She said "are you going to the funeral home for the visitation"?  I said "no, I'm going to a Lion's Club meeting.  I told her I had been at the home with the deceased last Thursday and that I wasn't sure who was doing the funeral.  My daughter said "you are doing it, dad"!!!!!  I said "No-one has notified me, the funeral home nor none of the family has contacted me at all."  She said, I saw it on the internet web page of the newspaper."  I was totally shocked and a bit upset.

I went to the Lion's Club meeting and my daughter went to the visitation and she said she would notify the family that I was not told or asked to do the funeral.  They were shocked that the funeral home had not contacted me.

I went to the funeral home after the Lion's Club meeting and met with the family. This to say, was extremely awkward.

What if I had not seen my daughter?  What if the time came for the funeral tomorrow and no-one was there to preach the funeral?

How sad would this have been for the family much less how tragic it would have been.  What is the matter with people now-days.