I have personally had a pretty hard time with this and have had a hard time trying to reason with it. Maybe it's because in the back of my mind I keep thinking that this could happen to me tomorrow. I've also realized that I suppress the worry that I feel every day, because if I didn't I'd go crazy. BJ said that all of the officers came away from the funeral with similar stories about their wives. We've all been beside ourselves for the last 3 weeks. It just hits a little too close to home.
Some of the cool things in the family part of the funeral was that he and his wife's song was "You are my sunshine" and they both sang "Teach me to walk in the light" to their baby twins every night. She had a cousin play a piano medley of those two songs and then "Families can be together forever". I wish I could convey the spirit that was present, it was so strong. I think the sweetest and hardest part of the funeral was when his mother in-law said that in the hospital he wouldn't leave his wife's side at all. She came to relieve him and told him to go get some rest and after a couple of times he turned around and said, "I can't leave, what if she needs me?" and her mom said, "Who better to leave her with to take care of her than her own mother?" He looked at her really hard and said, "ME!" It was sad to think of how much he wanted to be with his family and to be there for them.
The Police part was really neat. There were 113 motorcycle police alone along with several other officers from almost every department in the state. The furthest we heard that came were from Georgia and Florida. That is just the law enforcement brotherhood. It was really something else. The officers from surrounding precincts (BJ) all stood at attention while the funeral party passed with all of the patrons. The procession was at least 3-5 miles long in and of itself(Mostly police cars and motorcycles), and the Highway Patrol stopped traffic at every intersection. Cars were backed up literally for miles. I was in the tail end of it carring the lead dispatcher and the chief assistant (they were helping me with the kids). An elementary school came outside and the students waved flags.
The street on the way to the gravesite (which was quite a ways) was lined with flags. People were also lining the streets some with their hands over their hearts, some with their hats over their hearts. There were even people with signs that said, "Thank you officer Charlie Skinner". It's not very often that these guys see and hear the support of the public and it was very touching for all involved. The fire department hung a huge flag over the street as we all arrived.
I tried to take a picture of the gravesite as we were walking up, but I couldn't get the whole crowd or all of the police cars since a lot of them ended up on the street. If you click on this picture it will pull it up big and you can kind of see how many people were there (you can barely see the little dots of heads) They couldn't get the jets to do a fly over as low as they needed it so they had a police helicopter and air med do a fly over in the missing man formation. The thing that really got me was when they did the final call. They had all of the officers turn on their radios and dispatch came over the radio and said, "November 13--Bountiful. (pause) November 13--Bountiful. (Pause) November 13--Bountiful. (Pause)" Then they thanked him for his valiant service and ultimate sacrifice and signed him off for the last time "10-42". It was electric. Anyway, I was only able to get 3 pictures at the funeral because my hands were a little full and I was quite emotional. I think I cried for 2 hours straight after it was over. Now that we've been out of town and back, I'm finally starting to feel better, though it is still heavy on my mind. I don't think I'll ever forget and even though I don't know them personally, his family will always hold a place in my heart.
