This thread is for planning the memorial service for danceswithcats’s friends from all over. Please contribute ideas, suggestions, requests to read prayers / poems / etc. Please also post requests for rides, from “pick me up at the regional rail station” to “share a several hour car ride” to “I’m coming from city and can carry X people.”
The memorial service will be held at 1:30 on Sunday, August 30. Please dress appropriately. The location is:
Whitemarsh Memorial Park
1169 Limekiln Pike
Ambler, PA 19002-1100
(215) 646-7500
For people arriving from all over, meet at Montgomery Mall in North Wales, PA, at Routes US-202 and PA-309. (Specifically, please park in the north corner of the mall’s parking lot. I chose this location because I expect the only cluster of cars to be people for the memorial service.) We will leave from here at 1 PM sharp.
Also, I would like to hold a meal of consolation afterward, preferably in an area with reasonable privacy. (Possibly someone’s house, a community room, or similar.)
May danceswithcats’s memory endure for a blessing, and may us who mourn him be comforted along with all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. (Insert your own faith’s words of comfort here.)
How long of a trip is it and how long do you plan on staying? If I can come I’ll be leaving from the Gaithersburg area, but I might take the motorcycle.
I’d really, really like to attend (as would EtherealFreakOfPinkness, but according to Google Maps, it’s a 6+ hour drive from where we’re moving to next weekend. I’m guessing that unless someone can put us up for the night (or suggest a reasonably priced place we can stay), we won’t be able to do it.
If we can make it, though, there’s a Baha’i prayer for the deceased that I’d like to read.
I can put two or three (depending on how they want to sleep) up for the night. I’ve got a single bed, a futon that holds two and a spare couch that’s very comfy.
Unless someone nearby is planning on attending and offers their house, I don’t see being able to rent a community room or something on such short notice, not to mention arranging for food.
I don’t see a problem with going to a restaurant and asking for a corner table in back.
As for attire, yes, of course, appropriate attire is nice, but it’s going to be a hot summer afternoon, and Paul was a casual kind of guy. I think dressy-casual will be fine if you so choose.
I don’t want anyone to feel they can’t come just because they don’t have an all-black mourning outfit.
Ben, thanks for taking the lead in arranging this. I really appreciate it.
It is a 5 hour drive from the Boston area. I should be able to make it but I have to check with my husband’s schedule. Assuming I go, I could fit up to 3 people in my car as well.
7 hours each way for me. Unless someone can put me up for the night, since I don’t want to start driving at 6 AM after 5 days of classes, I won’t be able to come.
Shortly after we got together, I gave him a t-shirt and sweatshirt from my firehouse, and he gave me the same. He also gave me a set of firehouse t-shirts that were flourescent-colored, rather than the usual navy blue. They’re hot pink, bright orange, lime green and bright yellow. He’d bought them, but never wore them, because he’d decided they were too girly. I still have them.
There’s this little voice in my head that is telling me to wear one on the 30th. (I won’t, but I know he’d think it was funny.)
Actually I may not be able to take anyone with me in the car, because I’m going to Tucson out of NY’s JFK on Sept 2, and so it would make sense to go spend a couple of days with my husband’s cousin right outside the city and then go to the airport from there rather than drive all the way to Boston only to turn around and have to go back to NYC. But if anyone in the Boston area needed a ride there and didn’t mind taking the train back, or something…
I just got word from Paul’s friend John. He and his wife would like to attend and have graciously offered to have us all back to their house afterwards for a barbeque. We’ll need a definite head count in that case.
I’ve got to run to my son’s soccer practice, but will be back later this afternoon to firm up details.
The Trustee of his estate is working on setting up a fund for his daughter as well. The firehouse has decided to direct all donations they receive to her.
