From Chi Da-Thao

Jan. 19, 2009 - my dad's wake started at 9:30am at the funeral home. It's a large funeral home that can accommodat up to three wakes at once. Everyone was there in our family except for Hao, Mom and you, Lan Anh. we, immediate family and cousins and uncle and co 6 & 7 all wore white head bands. We're suppose to keep the headbands for 100 days after to show respect for dad. Each of the children took turns starting with anh hai(Dzuy) on down to me went up to light incense and bowed to dad's picture. Then we took turns , same order, paying our last respects to dad at his casket. This time co 6& 7 and their children took turns coming up to pay respect to dad at the casket. There was a prayer vigil and a little singing during the wake and lots of camera flashes went off as usual. After about 11:30, we braked for lunch. Anh Hai, Ba, tu, nam, kiet, me, huy huang and his wife, hung and his wife(chi nguyet) and kids went out to lunch. Then we went to church for the funeral mass at 2pm. Anh Kiet read the first reading from the gospel with a northern vietnamese accent. I lead a prayer of devotion in broken vietnamese and didn't realize that i was supposed to break in between paragraphs for everyone to join in...kept on going until cha Huy chimed in to save me. Anh Quoc gave a beautifully moving eulogy towards the end. it was so touching because he was crying when he gave the eulogy. The whole time I saw quoc down here, it was the first time he'd really expressed his feelings and tears. He's been really stressed lately and has finally broken down, but still he was trying to hold in the tears, but was not successful at it.

After mass, we went to co Lisa's house for the reception and people talked and joked and had a good time. after that we went to co 6's house because co 6&7 didn't go to the reception so we went to say out good-byes to co 7 since she and her daughter thu is leaving tomorrow to go back to single digit temperatures in Ohio.

it was a full day of activities. It was amazing that Huyen, Ti, Vui, Quoc and all who helped pull off the funeral plans in about 24 hours time.