Last night The four of us set off to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was Thursday night and the parking lot was packed. The franchise has been good for Celebration Cinema. The "gotta see" factor was clearly in effect. We sat next to a mom who was clearly the Harry Potter nut in her family. She gasped, guffawed and made random comments to the screen throughout. Her reactions teetered between amusing and obnoxious in my mind and according to Abby who was sitting next to me. The movie had some moments but I kept thinking that it was more about the cultural phenomena than the actual movie content. It's gonna be seven episodes and we're all going to see all seven (probably multiple times plus the DVD purchases). That got me to thinking about death. Of course death is a theme of the movie and I was thinking about the funeral that I would be attending the next day but I was thinking about those who would never see the Harry Potter Series and those who would only see part of it. I started making a list in my head. Will I make it to the seventh? Will Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe make it to the seventh before his receding hairline kicks in?
On to the real thing... the death of GRPD Officer Robert Kozminski last Sunday is the big story in town this week. Girbe and I decided to attend the funeral since we have been working on a GRPD history project and have become friends with the folks who have been studying the past deaths of GRPD officers killed on duty. We also thought it would be an interesting cultural milestone to experience first hand.
We arrived at 10:00am for the 11:00am funeral. It was at a big modern Catholic Church on the Northwest side of town, not far from Glen & Mary's old Cherry Run house. As we approached the church we were struck first by the number of Police Car's on hand and second by the number of satellite microwave uplink trucks on hand. We parked several blocks away and began walking. Topping a hill we took in the stunning site of the occupants of those vehicles. There in the church parking lot were cops in uniform. If I had to pick a number I'd say there had to be a thousand of them standing in formation. Not just GR cops... cops from all over Michigan, sporting every uniform in the catalog. On the other side of the curb were the media. They all were there with their best suits and fanciest equipment.
We immediately ran into our cop friends who were grateful that we had come out. Detective Dixon was in a suit and was running a video camera. We found a seat in the back row and opened our eyes to see what happens at a Police funeral when a young cop has been killed on duty. The program looked long but we had no idea...
At 11:05 after an introduction, a procession began. First a casket covered with a white linen. Then the family and finally a procession of cops. The casket stopped at the front of the church and the family sat down in the pews and the cops approached the casket, two by two, saluting and then proceding to their seats. Forty-five minutes later, the formation switched to three by three to speed things along. Thirty-five minutes after that, the last cop gave his salute. Then the regular funeral started.
It was a full Mass including Communion with bread and wine and finally a tender homily delivered by the local priest. But let me skip to the eulogies. There were three. First was from a fellow officer. He was tall (towering well above the microphone set at "stocky priest" height) and soft-spoken so it was a bit hard to hear. Still, it was a sweet story about the last time they had worked a detail together on the 4th of July. He was not a natural storyteller but his feelings came out and we were all getting moist. Second was Police Chief Harry Dolan. He's even taller (he's actually the tallest in the entire police force) but an excellent story teller. he started by reading an essay written by the deceased when he had applied for the GRPD and was required to write an autobiography for his entrance exam. Dolan then talked about some beautiful moments that he had had with Kozminski's family. He got real choked up which caused the whole audience, especially me to turn on the waterworks. Finally, Mayor Heartwell came up to talk about hope for a future without violence and war.
After some more ritual and song the casked was carried out of the building and we were free to leave. It was 2:00pm. But the story is not over.
Outside, we were handed Gatorade or water and the congregation pooled to watch an honor guard of (1000+) police officers in salute as the coffin was loaded into the hearse. After the honor guard marched back to their cars, motor cycles and buses, we followed back to our own car. I knew a back way out but at the end it was blocked by a Sand Lake Police Car protecting the parade route. We got out and sat in the shade as Police Car by Police Car drove by with lights on. After 30 minutes of this and no sign of an end we decided to circle back and drive away from town. After several more blocked routes, we finally hit Lake Drive and we wove our way back to Grove Street using back roads. It was 3:45 when I walked in the door.
I picked up the paper and read a story about how last night a fund raiser thrown together at the Intersection for a support fund for Officer Kozminsk's 3-year old daughter had raised $12,000. It was helped a lot by a $5,000 donation from country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill who had just played the VanAndel.
The girls are starving. Casie's coming over to sleep tonight. They also seemed to have figured out iChat with the built in camera streaming video.
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