I went to Larke's funeral. Drove down Tuesday night. I considered myself a representative of goodhunting and those of us who have met, talked to, joked with, or otherwise loved that hardworking man. HH, Barry, and Arty were all tied in knots that they couldn't make it for very good reasons. I was happy to be there for us all.
During the visitation it was my turn to greet Cheryl, David and the family. It was really awkward. I consider Cheryl a friend. She's a sweet woman, always been nice to me, and god knows she's a saint for putting up with Larke all these years! She and I froze in the most socially awkward way possible. We wanted to hug but you can't. I blathered some stupid shit about COVID sucks and she mumbled something about blah blah safe and then David out of nowhere came up and put a big old bear hug on me. That made things better. They were both barely hanging on, shocked, exhausted and dismayed I think would describe it.
The goodhunting spray was awesome. Better than the others and bigger! Larkes ashes were in a big ass fishing bobber urn! Perfect. Even had one of his fishing rods in the spread with hose godawful Spirex reels he loved so much :D
A few people came up to eulogize Larke, among them was David. He touched on how he was raised and that he didn't always understand what the hell his dad was doing. He then proceeded to tell the story of when Larke, David, Barry, Hank and I all went on a weekend cabin trip on the Shenandoah. I think it was like, 10 years ago. There was a stretch called Compton Rapids. Barry and I were behind the pack in my big ass wide canoe, us both being full figured gals. I kept yelling up the river that they were coming to the rapids and to stay to river left. Anyway, they entered the rapid on river right which basically fucks you from the start. they started turning sideways and Larke was yelling to David, "turn around backwards! We need to go down backwards!" Anyway, they hit a rock in the middle of the river and David was scrambling to grab poles and gear as the canoe slowly started to swamp... he collected everything he could, looks up on the bank and Larke is standing on the bank just fine. So remember, going forward isn't the only way to get thru something difficult!
The procession was awesome. Very moving. Lots of Sheriff and Police cars from both of Larkes previous departments were part of the escort and blocked off every intersection for the drive to the family burial plot. The Masons were there in full force and said those weird Mason things and laid an apron on his ash container. They had a 21 gun salute. The preacher, who was a friend of Larke's (shocker) said to the crowd to think of something positive to be happy about... "Be as happy as the animals in the woods today, knowing that Larke won't be in the woods with a gun again. Think of how happily the fish are swimming now that Larke is done fishing!" It was funny.
All in all, very glad I was able to go. I hope I represented us ok.
