Melrose, MA 2020

[Greg]

I'm traveling cross country in the time of Covid. But my last Aunt has passed and I feel honor bound to be there. Probably not the most logical of courses, but logic isn't a string suit.

I got up at 3 to make an eight o'clock flight from San Jose to Midway and then to Boston. I'm on the Southwest sky cattle car. It was cheaper and shorter than Fresno.

Every where there are mask signs and purrel stations. Everyone is wearing a mask except the guy across from in the gate area. He needs to talk loudly on his phone and doesn't want the mask to interfere. It's almost louder than the woman listening to music on her iPhone while listening to something on iPad through her headphones. I love the public.

Next stop Chicago.

[Drunk Monk]

Ohare? Yikes. Seems like that would be filthy with covid.

Sanitize! Watch your 6 (I know I posed that on your fb already but it’s so apropos)

[Greg]

Midway, not O'Hare. Still filthy.

[Greg]

The couple in front of me just wiped down their entire seating area with disinfectant wipes. And yet, he's got his face mask on his chin and she doesn't cover her nose. Logic!

[Drunk Monk]

I'm always carrying wipes when I travel. My last flight (pre-covid) convinced me of that. 

SANITIZE!

Never been to Midway. Travel safe.

[Greg]

Travel is broadening! The flights went fine. It's nice to be guaranteed that the middle seat in a row will be empty.  The flights were as full as they could be, but my rows on both legs of the journey were empty. The whole social distancing thing fell apart when it was time to deplane and everyone got up at once and clogged the aisles.

It also failed when we had to get on the bus to the car rental building. That bus was packed. 

On the record, I hate renting cars. There always seems to be some scam to get me to spend more money whether it's insurance or satellite radio or now the EZ Pass for tolls. I read online that Massachusetts has a scanner for license plates. You just had to go online and pay the tolls. At the checkout counter, I'm informed that's fiction. That I need to get the EZ Pass in order to pay the tolls. That my supposedly $2 toll would be $12. I took the roads without tolls to my Aunt Eileen's house.

I got in around 9:30 edt. I get the honor of sleeping the room where my Aunt passed away. I stayed in this room when I was last in Melrose and my Uncle had just passed away in this room. 

It's very strange to be in the house. It's full of memories of both of them without actually having both of them in it. It was partly bad without my Uncle, full bad without my Aunt

I spent a lot of time talking to my cousin Chris about my Aunt and his brothers and sisters. There are five kids total; Jay, Linda, Chris, and David. There is a lot more tension between the siblings than I remember. Chris is the one that had eight daughters and the messy divorce. Like all good Lynches, the kids are fond of telling the others what to do. Chris's siblings are fond of telling him what to do with his kids. For instance none of them were happy that Chris's daughter was bringing her four year old to the wake. They figured it would be traumatizing. I figured what do you remember when you were four? But there are a lot of these little things popping around.

I spent a lot of Friday hanging around the house waiting for the wake at 4. I had breakfast from Dunkin Donuts and lunch from Kelly's which is fabulous roast beef sandwich shop. Arby's could learn a lot of lessons from Kelly's. Kelly's was also Aunt Eileen's goto spot. She loved their Lobster rolls. It felt odd going there and not getting her one.

There were a lot of pandemic rules in place at the wake.  Only a few people could be in the hall at a time. They were washing down the pens used to sign the remembrance book. People had a lot of awkward moments of whether to hug or not to hug. Everyone was in masks. The number one topic of conversation after Aunt Eileen was about masks.

I got to see all my cousins and their children. And the children brought their boyfriends and girlfriends so there was quite the big crowd before the mourners even started showing up. My youngest cousin, Janet arrived late which is another topic of conversation with the rest family.

Most of the kids were sent home to make space in the mourning room for visitors. It was pretty packed for the entire run of 4 to 7. My cousins from my mother's side of the family also showed up. It was nice they stopped by and I got to meet their new dog Lillie. DM should have come to New England where he could have gotten a sled dog rescue.

Afterwards I could have gone to Chris's place to hang out with him and his daughters or I could go back to Aunt Eileens to spend some time with Jay, Linda and their spouses. I opted for Aunt Eileen's because I needed to get out of the suit. We had a lovely dinner of pizza from Aunt Eileen's favorite pizza place.

We chatted. I learned about more bones of contention among the siblings and other family stories. I spent time with the spouses while Jay and Linda did mysterious things upstairs. Linda's husband was kind enough to say he knew I would be there at the funeral when it was announced.

Finally, they all left and I was left all alone in Aunt Eileen's house. Chris was still over at his apartment with his girls when I finally went to sleep. So, yes, it was just me and the ghosts and the memories for a good two hours.

[Drunk Monk]

Sounds like a very heavy trip. Hope you're giving yourself some self-care recovery time.

[Greg]

Yeah, not so much. More stories to come. Lots of contention between the cousins and the kids.

[Drunk Monk]

Sleeping in the room where someone recently passed just sounds heavy. Plus the nostalgia for that old house. I hope it gave you some closure.

[Greg]

Funeral day was a long day temporally and emotionally.

Janet, the youngest, was the first one to Incarnation Church for the funeral because she was given so much crap because of how late she was to the viewing the day before. Her tardiness is an ongoing theme at the Lynch gatherings, so it was good she headed off further discussion of that by being early. It gave the family so much more time to concentrate on the continuing drama to come.

Eileen's funeral mass went well. It was, I think one of the first masses back for most people since the pandemic started. We all had to sit in every other pew. The priests used hand sanitizer before handing out the communion wafer. And instead of hugging or shaking hands to offer the fellow congregants for the sign of peace, everyone flashed peace signs at people.

The only family member who didn't participate in the mass was Chris, but I learned later he was all right with that since he wrote the obituary for the paper and felt like he did his bit. David and Jay did readings from the Gospels while Linda did the eulogy. Janet stood with Linda at the Lectern to offer moral support. Linda made it all the way through, only breaking down right at the end. Knowing from experience how tricky that the eulogy can be, I silently applauded her efforts.

Probably one the thing that gave us the most levity for the rest of the day was something Linda said about David during the eulogy. She did a characterization of each the siblings as Aunt Eileen some them. Jay, the oldest was the mama's boy. Linda was stubborn. Chris was the wild child. Janet was just like her mother. But David was the handsome one. For the rest of the day that's all we called him, The Handsome One. It brought some much needed levity to a somber day.

We layed Aunt Eileen to rest at the Wyoming Cemetery alongside Uncle Jimmie. It was a blistering hot day and we all took shelter away from the grave underneath some trees while the Priest did the benediction. Hawks interjected from above with loud screeches. I was hoping we could do the same howitzer salute that we did for my Uncle Jimmie for my Aunt Eileen, but they said no. Some excuse about not being a major general in the army. 

Three of Eileen's five sisters made the trip to say good bye and I thought that was very nice. Eileen was the eldest daughter of the family and took care of the younger sisters when Eileen's mother died at an early age.

We also had two hidden visitors at the grave side: Chris's ex-wife Maureen and Chris's semi-estranged daughter, Patricia. Chris and Maureen have had an ugly divorces. If I have the story correct, Maureen cheated on Chris with the neighbor across the street as well as stealing money from their joint savings accounts, with the help of the eldest daughter Patricia. Maureen used the money to buy a separate home for herself down in Cape Cod. Chris's siblings would have pitched her out to the curb is she was known to be at the church or at the graveside. I had a long talk with Chris about how his brothers and sisters were only sticking up for him with their animosity towards the ex. He didn't quite understand.

But Maureen did sneak into the church. She sat behind a good friend of Chris's who Chris would like to see on a more serious level. She also parked far away at the cemetery. Patricia, the eldest daughter, was there as well.

After the ceremony was over, I noticed that Chris was missing as the family stood around talking with their fellow mourners. I eventually spotted Chris over at a different location with his girls. Since he was my ride home, I walked over to him to see what the current plan was about going back to the house. As I made my way towards them, two people made quick goodbyes. I later learned that was Maureen and Patricia.

I was able to get a nice picture of Chris with six of his eight girls. I think I finally know who is who and can identify them by sight.



Chris didn't want to go back to the house. Mainly because his daughters weren't invited. Or at least that was his understanding. Coupled with how his daughters were kicked out of the viewing service while the other kids were not, made for a lot hurt feeling on his side.

I eventually convinced him to come by the house. It was a day to be with family and remember his mother. He reluctantly came but spent most of the time upstairs in his bedroom. He did this before departing to see his daughters over at his apartment. I had made plans earlier at the grave side to go over to Chris's apartment at five so I could see the girls one last time.

The affair at the house was nice. I talked to all the kids and the family. Chris's departure was a topic all over the house. The siblings version of the story was that Chris volunteered to have the girls depart before the official hours for the viewing and they were more than welcome to have come to the party at house. But through some miscommunication the girls  felt they were not wanted.

But this always been a long standing problem with Chris's girls. They don't feel welcome at the gatherings. So, it also sort of bubbled up during the viewing and the funeral.

At five, I went to the apartment to talk to Chris and the girls. Much to my surprise, Chris had gone to dinner and the girls had scattered to the winds. I promptly turned around and went back to the party at Eileen's. Everyone there was surprised to see me back so quickly. There was more discussion about Chris and the tension. And then Chris showed up at the house, too, with Bridget and Fallon in tow.

Before I had left, I made plans with the Handsome One to stop by his house to get some quality time with him and his wife since I hadn't see very much of him, either. This ballooned into basically a second party at David's house with more food.

Everyone went out to talk to Chris in the front of the house. I grabbed a picture of the siblings only realizing later that's probably the last thing they wanted to do. At this point, Jay was leaving to go home and everyone else was getting ready to decamp to Dave's house. Chris's two girls had gone down the block to get away from the house and cry. Chris followed them down there. I followed, too just to get a sense of what was up.



They were still mad at the fact of the viewing and not being allowed to the family wake. I tried to get them to see that it was a misunderstanding and that none of the family hated them. It kind of worked, but not really. I did get them to come to David's house to see their fellow cousins who would all be there as well. I was thinking baby steps to rapprochement. Again, it kind of worked, but not really.

Chris and the girls came but disappeared again without saying goodbye to anyone. Which was odd since I had driven them over to the party at Dave's. They just walked back to the car at Aunt Eileen's and driven off.

The party at David's house was good. We weren't surrounded by Eileen and Jimmie's memorabilia so the air seemed a little less heavy. But the hard feelings with Chris were still a constant companion.

I drove back to the house. I thought it was going to be empty but Chris was still there and up. He tried to talk some more about the problems, but I cut him off. I had heard enough for one weekend and I think it was time for those people to move on. I packed up my things knowing I had to be up at four to drive to the airport.

On the whole, I was glad I went. I did like reconnecting with the various factions of the family. I got to talk to the younger and find out what they were up to. One is on her way to a doctorate. Others are getting along with their lives. I pushed them constantly to come out to California to see their cousin and all his cats. So many cats.

[Drunk Monk]

Do you think that you'll ever go back there?

[Greg]

Then there was the travel.

It was smooth for the most part. I drove down easily from Raymond to SJ in tQ's car. The only hiccup being the bathrooms were locked up at Casa de Fruta and they were closed for cleaning at the Chevron next door. I still made it easily to the Gilroy gas station.

No one was at the airport so I made it quickly through TSA at San Jose. My question about how do they identify you if you wearing a mask was easily solved. You take off the mask. 

Had a quick lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern at Midway airport which is one of those Chicago staples, better in theory than in actuality. Got to sit in the exit row by myself on the way to Boston. Quickly got my rental car and drove to Melrose. I avoided the expedient and expense of having to get an EZ Pass by using roads that didn't have tolls.

My luck crashed on the way home.

I got up early and had to put almost 2 dollars worth of gas in the tank to fill it back up. No one was the Dollar Rent a Car station so I left my keys in the car and then went to catch the bus to Terminal B for my flight. I dined sumptuously on two Croissant breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts as I waited on my flight. 

We did the usual boarding in groups of ten to get on. The middle rows were all left empty. Since I had a low number, I got to board early and again snagged the exit row all to myself. It's all about the extra leg room in the exit row.

Then the captain came on to tell us that we would be delayed fifteen minutes because they had discovered a bird strike and they need engineering to check it out. I assumed bird strike meant a bird had hit one of the engines or near to it. We waited.

The wait of fifteen was concerning to me because I only had forty minutes to change planes at Midway. The fifteen minute delay meant that I now had only thirty minutes between flights. Still doable but sweat inducing.

The captain came on and made the dreaded announcement. He had good news and bad news. The bad news was that engineering wasn't going to open until 9:30 am due to the fact they were short staffed owing to father's day. It was currently 6:45. The good news was that there was a plane just few gates over from where we sat. As a matter of fact, it's the plane on the left in the picture above.

We all disembarked. We waited in the terminal as the flight crew got on the plane and got it ready. There was no lining up by numbers this time. We were just in a long queue and got checked back on the plane. Checking my watch, I now saw that we had used up the forty five minutes in our game of musical planes. I had a little hope though. Flight times usually have some padding in them. Maybe we could squeeze in a few minutes between landing and departure?

Sure enough, the pilot gunned it to Midway. We were going to get in twenty minutes early. The captain announced that all the planes had been alerted we were coming and they were holding the flights for us. Woo-fucking-hoo.

There was some tension getting off the plane because a bunch of passengers had to get to a completely different terminal at Midway to get there flights. The request went up to let them through first. One woman screamed through the aisle, shouting Social Distancing and get out of the way because she needed to get off first. She said this until she ran into the back of the people also needing to get off first.

I switched my phone off airplane mode and was immediately greeted by the announcement that I had new boarding passes for an additional two stops of flying. Southwest had cancelled my boarding pass for the San Jose flight.

I ran to that gate anyway. I got there with twenty minutes to spare. The plane was still parked at the end of the jetway. The attendant at the gate said I had to go to the check-in desk in order to get the boarding pass. Or at least talk to the people at the check-in desk because he could do nothing about it.

There were already people at the check-in desk with same predicament. Tensions were high. Voices raised. One women was desperate to get home for father's day. The attendants were saying there was nothing they could do. There was no way for our baggage to get to the plane in time and passengers had to fly with their bags. Sorry. Go away. I mentioned that it was their fault for putting us on a broken plane in the first place. Grrr Grrr mumble mumble.

I walked away thinking about getting on the plane to St. Louis and then waiting four hours for the plane to San Jose. Grr Grr mumble mumble. At some point I figured maybe there was a direct flight later from Midway to SJ. I looked at the departure board and sure enough there was. It left in two hours would get me to San Jose two hours earlier than the route through St. Louis.

I walked back to the gate to see about getting on that flight. When I got to the check-in desk, my fellow missed travelers were still there. And in my absence, Southwest had changed their mind and were going to put us on the plane to San Jose that was still sitting outside. What?! Yes, it was dumb luck that I walked back to the gate and was fortunate to be the last person to be given a boarding pass. I grabbed the pass and scooted over to the gate before someone changed their minds. 

I was the last person on the plane and low and behold the exit row was still empty. I took it. Minutes later the doors closed and we were on our way. A few minutes into the flight the captain announced that our bags were also on the plane. Woo-fucking-hoo.

It was an easy flight to San Jose, mainly because I just had to sit there. Grabbed tQ's car and drove home to Raymond. I rushed because I had a Zoom meeting to get ot.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Stupid zoom meetings.

[Greg]

Don't say it, Lord Zoom. We look to you for guidance.

[Drunk Monk]

Do you think that you'll ever go back there?

This time, I mean DOOM zoom. When I first arrived, and it was just scapino, and he launched into some long pointless tale, I had regrets.