Funeral Service For Marcial Valdez

Left: Family viewing. Michelle Browning, foreground. Background: Marc Valdez, Aaron Christopher Browning, and Marra Valdez-Newman (photo by Ken Newman).


A very nice funeral service at French's Wyoming Blvd. location. They prepared a nice video tribute, using guitar music (particularly the familiar song "Canta No Llores"), and various photos we submitted. Kathy Thibadaux from Harmony Hospice sang "Amazing Grace" and Jeanne Franchi, also from Harmony, gave an inspirational address. I gave a brief history of my father's life, and read two poems my father asked to have read at his funeral service.

At the end, I asked if anyone wanted to say anything in my father's memory. No one did (it's kind of scary to just stand up and talk). So I told three stories about my Dad, or at least about growing up in semi-rural Corrales, NM:

1. fighting a farmhouse fire in the dark;
2. the day my mom made suntea; and,
3. the bull in the living room.

I was on a roll, and could have gone on and on, but then I remembered that officiating a funeral service is not supposed to be the same thing as stand-up, and so brought the service to a tasteful close.