I believe our impossibly busy time has come to an end. We arrived in Evansville early and drove directly to the same dirt-cheap place my sister contracted for my mother’s cremation – Gelham Funeral Home run by a father and son and offering services way below scale. We filled out the necessary forms, chatted about family, and then both Stan and Matt helped plan the next phase – our journey to Kansas on Tuesday. In addition to helping us understand our expected costs, we learned that mini vans with bucket seats were big enough for a single coffin and three people, that Suburbans, though monstrous are too short, and that cargo vans seat only two. We haven’t yet decided how many of us are taking this trip, though my older brother no longer refers to me, the dreamer up of this plan, as his “psycho brother.” So, there will be a minimum of two but possibly four travelers.

After we returned to the Marriott, I called Carlson Funeral Home in Eldorado, Kansas, and talked to Lionell Butts. He didn’t immediately understand my plan, but once he understood that my father was already in a casket and that there would be no service at his place, he seemed to cotton to the idea. It appears that the costs in Kansas will be minimal and we’ll be driving my father to his grave. But then what? Lowering him into the ground ourselves? That part, at the moment, is unclear.