Lug was very religious but was also very adamant that he wanted a visitation instead of a traditional funeral. He had gone to the local funeral home in Fort Dodge last last year to make his final arrangements. He planned his cremation to be soon after he died, chose a very nice plain oak box for his ashes, and planned to have a visitation at the funeral home rather than a funeral at a church.
He came from a large family as did his wife, Darlene, and, since he was an insurance agent in town and had lived in Fort Dodge almost his entire life, he knew everyone. Cathy and Dawn, Gary’s sisters, had arranged for cookies and coffee to be served towards the back of the room and Gary had brought his computer with the slide show and picture board he had made for his father’s 90th birthday party last summer.
What a crowd showed up: family, old policyholders, Hy-Vee guys with whom he had a donut with in the mornings, neighbors, relatives, friends and others. At 4:00 when the visitation ended, many were still there and the last ones left at 4:30 planning to meet some others at a local restaurant later. Lug, who was quite a raconteur himself, would have been in his element and have had a great time. He would have strolled from group to group, laughing and joking his way through the crowd. This was just as he had planned.
Here are Cathy, Dawn and Gary with his cool oak box and note Cathy wearing his 90th birthday cap.
The immediate family returned to his home for a little down time, pizza and more conversation. Here’s Samanatha, one of his granddaughers, trying on an old Russian hat of his.
And here’s Gary and racing with Maddy, one of Lug's great granddaughters with Tom, a son-in-law of Lug, looking on. Gary kept accusing Maddy of cheating but when his car flipped in the air, we knew that his technique needed polishing.
Gary is the executor and is trying to gather some of the paperwork that Lug had left.
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