Our Dad

 

                                                John Ivery Sr. As a little boy. How cute is he???

Our Dad died in January of 2019. This blog post is in remembrance of him. 

Our dad was well known in our small town. Many people saw him as a quiet man. We saw him as a loving, silly man. He loved to pick on us, talk crap when playing cards or board games, and he loved a good joke. I would like to share two experiences with you that happened on the day of his homegoing service. He would have loved both of these experiences. As a matter of fact, I’m SURE he incited the first experience. 

Before heading to the church, family and friends were gathered in the living room. My Mom’s brother was designated to lead the prayer for us before leaving the house. 

We were instructed to hold hands in a circle. The room transferred from a loud, laughing space to a somber, almost sad environment. We bowed our heads, closed our eyes, and waited for the prayer to start. 

He started off somewhat quiet (understandably) and as the prayer progressed, my phone rang. 

I thought I had turned the phone off.  I didn’t need it because my Dad’s homegoing was way more important than a phone call. To be honest, I'm not even sure why I was taking it to the church. 

It wasn’t the ringing phone that caused concern though. It was the ringtone. The ringtone was a song titled Peeno Noir. The song was made famous by the character Tituss Burgess, on the sitcom The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmit. It starts out with a loud, high pitched man screaming Peeno Noir at the top of his lungs. And yes, it should be pinot noir. 

It took a minute for me to fish the phone out of my jacket pocket and turn it off. After I switched the phone off and apologized the prayer continued, I could hear people quietly laughing. I opened my eyes to look around the circle to see shoulders moving up and down while hands covered mouths so the prayer wouldn’t be disturbed with quiet laughter.  I think everybody was laughing. After the prayer, the room bloomed into a loud, joyous space again because we all knew our Dad would have found the ringing phone funny. 

After arriving at the church the family sat on the front pew.  I sat next to my sister and her husband sat next to her.  Our Dad’s niece (our cousin) preached his eulogy. She’s a wonderful speaker and as she spoke about our family and our Dad’s life I felt a sense of sadness at our loss. I laid my head on my sister’s shoulder as tears slowly crept out my already misty eyes. 

My sister has always taken care of me. She always has been and always will be the best sister in the world to me. She’s taught me, loved me, accepted me, and taken care of me when I needed her to. She’s wonderful and amazing. I love her so much. 

As my head laid on her shoulder, her husband (my brother in law), began fanning me with a church fan. Keep in mind it was January and the church wasn’t hot. The more he fanned, the colder I got. I finally told her to tell him to stop fanning me. I was crying, not burning up from the heat. She told him what I said and he replied, you make me sick. Again we laughed at yet another humorous experience at his homegoing. I’m sure the people behind us thought we were crying hard because of the movement of our shoulders from our laughter. 

Daddy would have loved the laughter on the day of his homegoing. I thank my dad for his sense of humor because he passed it to me. I love to laugh and talking crap is a favorite past time too. 

Thank you, Daddy. You are missed, forever loved, and never forgotten.