I woke up at 4 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. I sneaked out from bed trying not to wake my family up and went to kitchen. I started cooking mutton stew. Around 8 a.m., my family woke up and came to kitchen. My husband and I placed all the medical equipment that my dad-in-law rented from the hospital on the truck bed. My mom-in-law needed to return them as soon as possible to avoid being charged the late return penalty.
My mom-in-law needed to go back to the mortuary office again for the appointment at 10 a.m. On their appointment of yesterday, the office people informed her to bring lots of necessary documents for the cremation procedure. She was upset that the office people didn’t tell her about the information in advance. It takes 40 minutes one way from her house to the office. She needed to go there twice, which could have been saved to just one trip.
We arrived at the mortuary 10 minutes earlier than the appointment time. The office seemed to be quite busy with many different families. The energy of the mortuary was deeply low, because they kept many dead bodies waiting for their turn to be created in the same building. Also there were so many sad family members of the deceased person. It was so heavy vibration.
Yesterday when my mom-in-law came to the mortuary office, she expected her granddaughters to go into the office with her. However, they both refused to go in. They waited in the truck. I was shocked. If I had known this, I would have come with her. I felt sorry for her that she needed to go through the mortuary paperwork all by herself. The mystery solved. That was why she looked drained after she came back from the mortuary office yesterday.
The female worker was nice and thoughtful. I liked her polite attitude. She handed a bunch of papers to my mom-in-law and asked her to go through the details to check for any typos. Right after both of my mom-in-law started checking the documents, they found lots of typos. The death day was typed as august 30th 2021, which is the future date. The correct date was August 20th 2021. The death time was wrong in am and pm. The family name had a typo. The female worker apologized to my mom-in-law on behalf of her coworker. She said the office just hired a new worker and all the mistakes were made by the new worker. I almost laughed out loud when the worker confirmed the name of my dad-in-law’s dad’s name as Jam. His correct name was Sam. The office worker said she went through some peculiar names before. She had taken care of a woman whose name was “Bluetrain” and other woman whose name was “Daughter.” She said whenever she encountered a peculiar name, she tries to stay calm and confirm with the family member without making fun of it.
Before we came to the office, some people told us that the cremation should be done quickly. Thus, we all were hoping the cremation would be done preferably today or tomorrow so that we would be able to perform a funeral on Tuesday or Wednesday. The female worker told us currently due to the Covid-19, the cremation would take much longer days than we thought. She shared her personal story with us. Her husband passed away in last November due to Covid. Even though she was a worker at the mortuary office, they made it as quick as possible but it took them for 2 weeks to cremate his body. She also told us there were many people passed away from Covid related reasons. My dad-in-law’s cause of death was also recognized as Covid-related.
Before we left the house, my mom-in-law was feeling scared of the total amount of these procedure. But she had a good amount of cash in hand. The next morning after my dad-in-law passed away, one of his nephews visited my mom-in-law and handed a thick envelope that was a donation for the funeral. After the nephew left, she counted the money and amazed of the generous amount. The Navajo Nation had a support system for the cremation fee. My mom-in-law could pay off the remainder fee in cash.
The office worker suggested my mom-in-law to identify my dad-in-law’s body, but she refused to do so. My husband was willing to do so on behalf of his mom. He was escorted by two female workers side by side and went into the room where all the dead bodies were kept in the huge refrigerator. According to my husband, my dad-in-law was all naked and in a zipped bag. Because of the Covid, the workers needed to get rid of clothes. When the worker unzipped the top part of the bag, my husband could see my dad-in-law’s face and shoulder. He was very skinny and looked like a little boy’s body. The good thing was though, he looked relaxed. His face expression looked like he was little bit smiling. My husband wanted to touch his dad’s body, but he was not allowed. He almost cried but held the tears back.
Right before my husband came back to our room, I sensed his sadness. Because my husband could not shed tears, I started shedding lots of tears. I still think I cried on behalf of my husband.
After we left the mortuary office, we stopped by at the medical equipment rental store and returned all the items that my dad-in-law rented.
On the way back home, I slept in the truck. I was surrounded by sad energy and exhausted.
We were planning to stay until Friday. However, we at this moment don’t know when they create the body. So, we decided to go back home tomorrow.
In the evening we went to the grocery store and bought 5 small cakes to cerebrate my husband’s birthday one day early. His birthday is actually tomorrow, but we will be driving all day tomorrow. My daughter, mom-in-law, my brother-in-law’s daughter and I sang a birthday song for my husband. we all wished my dad-in-law was there with us for the birthday cerebration.
three wisdom 