Pat's Father
The father of a close acquaintance of mine passed away on Thursday. Pat is an “acquaintance” because although I have known him for years, he lives out of town and I see him at most, maybe once each year. Lives often cross and then go different directions. This was a particularly busy week for me. My office was installing a computer network, and I was having difficulty in purchasing a computer that worked. My choral group’s concert was this weekend and I was responsible for the church serving as the venue. That meant 3 hour rehearsals every night, plus extra time to make sure the church was open and then closed. So I was somewhat irritated when I got the call on Thursday about the passing of Pat’s father and the funeral arrangements. I simply could not handle one more thing, and I decided not to go. My office associate also knows Pat, and when I described to him the conflict with the rehearsals and the Friday night wake and asked him to make my apologies, he told me that skipping the wa