Last week was a long week

  It's been just over a week since the first Firefighters funeral both Mike & I have ever been in. Joe, one of our firefighters, passed away from cancer. He was only 53. He was in a hospital in Grand Rapids for quite a while, then when he took a turn for the worst, he was transfered back down here to Lansing and put into hospice. He actually worked for two different departments. There was at least one guy from one or both department's with him in hospice the whole time.
  His son Andrew was also part-time with us and full-time with the other department. They were kind of like family. Andrew is my neice Karly's brother, and Joe was like a father/uncle to her. Speaking of family, you never realize how close the firefighter family is until something like this happens. We all worked together to help the family, and help out with the funeral. It was really nice to be able to help like that. We even had other firefighters from some other departments there, even one from Detroit.
  Both depatments had all the emergency vehicles in the procession, and it was a long procession! We had other departments cover the stations incase a call came in.
  Joe will be greatly missed!

Joe & his son Andrew

Our Chief at the church.

Casket Bearers (from both dept's) preparing for placing the casket on the bed of the truck.

Enroute to the cemetary.

There were police blocking major intersections.

At the entrance to the cemetary

It was a beautiful day, and everything went very well. I couldn't beleive all the people standing at the side of the road on our way to the cemetary, some of them were even saying they were sorry.

All my love to the family.