Unchained

We were sad to have the occasion to, but happy to be able to, return to Dad's today to attend the funeral of Lyle Opdahl, husband of Dad's cousin LeeAnn as well as Dad's elementary school classmate and lifelong friend. The funeral was in Battleview in the afternoon, so it was another daytrip for the Dickinson Mobergs (see this). We got to Dad's in time to have dinner at noon with him and Beverly before the funeral.

My sisters and I have always been friends with Lyle and LeeAnn's kids, our second-cousins Kim, Val, and Jeri, as well as with Lyle's nieces Cheryl and Veronica ("Prudie"), who went to school with us and rode the same school bus (Prudie to not-so-qualified substitute bus driver Eilaf: "Keep your eyes on the road!"); so it was very nice to get to visit with them before and after the funeral. I was too much younger than Lyle's other nieces, Debbie and Theresa, to know them well, but Theresa was at the funeral and told me that she remembered me as a nice little tow-headed kid who bopped onto the school bus and then sat quietly in the front. I said, "'Nice'? 'Quietly'? Are you sure that was I?" (Sisters, you're probably thinking that, too, aren't you?!)

In the evening, we extended family members were invited to join LeeAnn and her kids for supper, which they brought to the church to serve in the fellowship hall downstairs (people had brought them so much food in the days before the funeral that they wanted to share it all). There was plenty of time for visiting with Lyle's family as well as with other relatives and community members whom I saw often while growing up when they were my neighbors but don't see much anymore unless it's at holidays, weddings, or funerals. I'm grateful to be living close enough to "home" now that we're able to make quick trips back for such occasions; when the drive from our house was five or more hours, we weren't as free to come back without planning ahead, taking time off from work, etc.

The route between Dad's house and our own in Dickinson is lousy with deer of a summertime evening, and this trip was no exception. I have to keep a keen eye out for the creatures, which love to congregate in the ditches, laze along the shoulder of the road, meander across the highway, and generally make even more unpredictable the already potentially dangerous drive along the curvy and mountainous nighttime roadway. Here are some of them plotting to leap, gazelle-like, into the path of oncoming traffic:

And here is a pretty nighttime view of the Four Bears Bridge spanning Lake Sakakawea west of New Town:

We have a little wooden pig that looks in on us through our patio doors as we sit at the dining room table and eat; it's a recent purchase to decorate our veranda. The girls have named it Lyle Jerome Opdahl, Jr., the Pig in honor of Lyle. Also in honor of Lyle, here's a little music from Johnny Cash--a song called "Unchained" that might relate to Lyle's transition to Heaven: