Another young funeral

Yesterday afternoon I attended the funeral of another young Mancos man, Justin Horrocks, who turned 22 a month or so ago. It's so hard to see the wrenching effect this has on friends and family. Again, as with Enrique, some of his buds and classmates spoke about their loss and their love for this smiling, hard-working, fun-loving young man. 

Though I grew up going to more family funerals than I wanted to, they were all old folks. I guess I was spared the early loss of someone my own age. It's heart-rending! There were quite a few others, men as well as women, who had their handkerchieves out before it was done. 

The service was held in the school's performance center (the gym) and there were at least 500 people there. Justin's grandfather was a well-loved Mormon bishop, who died not many years ago after a long illness, so the lad was pretty well tied to most of the community. As several young folks commented in Facebook posts, this is one of those occasions that overrides the petty bickerings of small towns and brings everyone together.

There was a distinctly Mancos flavor to the assemblage ... cowboy boots, jeans, western shirts (the immediate family set this tone), big belt buckles, the occasional piece of Carhartt apparel, only a few suits and ties. 

In addition to the blood lines that make almost everyone in the community a relative of everyone else (Even the funeral director is a local boy!), I think our schools help cement this sense of unity and togetherness. All of our schools are on the same block, so for 12 years all the kids are with all the other kids, seeing brothers, sisters, cousins and neighbors throughout each day. That seems a big contrast with my experience of going eight years to a one-room country school and then being bused into town for high school with kids from all over the county. Even though I enjoyed my 50th reunion, I still have a feeling of being one of the "country kids" and not quite belonging (which probably wasn't helped a bit by my leaving town as early as I could and going back as seldom as I could!).

Anyway, the only nice thing about going to a funeral on a rainy day was that the sun was shining brightly, if briefly, as we came out of the performance center at the end of the service. 

Going with my sweetheart to see "Greater Tuna" at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College did a lot to chase away the blues, too. Fortunately, we came out of an ambush by a buck on the way back relatively unscathed. tv