4 years 8 months 5 days

Day 1709. Before going to bed last night, I checked again what it would take to go to our friend's funeral today on public transportation. Tuesday is the only day of the week where the kids don't have a class, and it was unusual for me not to have any students on Tuesday afternoon. I couldn't imagine being home doing office work while Sonja's funeral was going on and I could have been there.

We had already let Sammy's kindergarten know that Sammy was sick and not coming, as they'd rather he stay home when he has such a bad cold. When we woke up this morning, I checked with Randy what he was thinking, and we agreed to go to the funeral. I thought that Tammy and Emmy could still go to kindergarten, but time was really too short, so I called the kindergarten to tell them that they weren't coming. And so all three were home. Randy went to the grocery store to buy groceries, while they were at home with me.

And time flew by. I cooked lunch, and it was after noon before we sat down to eat. Suddenly time was really short, and we rushed to finish eating and get ready to  leave the house. Everyone dressed up, and at 12:45 or so we left the house to make our train.

I was relieved, when we got to the train station and saw that our train was not canceled. It came on time just before 1 pm, and we rode it to the main train station. Once getting off the train, we were already in the right place for our connecting train. We just had to wait for the previous train to leave, then our train arrived, and we got on.

Just before 1:30 pm the train to Burgenland left; we had an hour on that train. Then I heard an announcement on the train that the train was going to be split in two going different directions. How could I know whether I was in the right part of the train? I asked another passenger who gave me the right answer and then asked again, when our tickets were checked. We were told that we were in the wrong part of the train and told what a good stop was to get off and get on the other part of the train. When we reached the town, we did just that. We had been on the red train, but we needed to be on the green and yellow train.

During our one-trip the kids were on their tablets, using the internet provided by the train. It was the perfect way to keep them occupied and make the time go by faster. Our train was running a few minutes late, which made me a little nervous, as we only had 10 minutes to get to our bus after getting off the train. But we were only a few minutes late, so I expected it to be alright.

We got off at 2:30 pm, in a small village where there wasn't much. But I could not see a bus stop. There weren't a lot of people either, so I quickly called after a young man walking away from the train and asked whether he knew the area and where the bus stop was. He pointed me in the right direction. We walked up that street and found it. The bus was also a few minutes late.

We rode the bus for just over 10 minutes and arrived downtown in the village where Sonja was from. I had the map on my phone in my hand to show me where we had to go. We were walking in that direction, when my friend suddenly stopped her car next to us. I got on with Tammy and Emmy, and she took us the rest of the way to the cemetary up the hill. Randy and Sammy walked up the hill and rejoined us on top, in front of the hall where the funeral was going to take place.

We got there at just the right time as the funeral was about to start. The small room was filled to capacity, with people already standing everywhere, including outside. We were still able to find a free spot in the very back behind the last row, where we could stand. I had Emmy on my shoulders, then Tammy, but they're really getting too heavy for me, so I got them back down eventually. It was hard for them to sit still or be quiet, so we constantly had to try to reign them in.

Sonja's pastor led the ceremony with his wife, and he did a great job.  They played and sang, he spoke, a friend of Sonja's played a song, and four of her friends spoke a few words telling about Sonja. That was about it. A few men came in and put the casket on a cart and then walked out of the hall with it, Sonja' family right behind it, then everyone else joined the procession to walk to the gravesite. We got a good spot there, able to see what they were doing. The pastor spoke a few words, then another guy who mentioned that everyone was invited to the restaurant after. They lowered the casket into the grave, then the family threw some soil on top. Then everyone was invited to do the same. I'd only ever been to one funeral before and that was not done there, so it was new to me. We walked to the grave, and I put some soil in. Emmy didn't want to, but Tammy did. Then I walked by Sonja's immediate family. Her sister said to me that she wished that Sonja had stayed with us instead of taking the job at the kindergarten. Sonja had said the same to me not long before she died. It touched my heart again, as it had been so hard for us too to lose her back then, about two years ago.

Everyone walked away, and so we did too. We made our way back to the hall and then the street and followed the directions on my phone to the restaurant. When we got there, we were the first ones to arrive. We sat down at the table and soon other people arrived. Some time later the room was full. It was nice to have my good friend there, who had taken us in the car, and that she was sitting near me, together with another lady from church I knew. That way I got to talk to them. We were served sausages with sauce and bread and drinks and had a good time fellowshipping. I was especially happy to meet another friend of Sonja's that she had talked about a lot but that I had never met in person.

I had to watch the time, as the bus and train were only running once an hour. I would have liked to stay a little longer, but another hour was too long. Sammy was rather tired, with his nose still runny all the time. And so we said our goodbyes at 5:10 pm to make the 5:19 pm bus. We were the first ones to leave.

We had to walk to a different bus stop than where we had gotten off, so I followed my phone's directions again. Tammy was whining that she was hot, but then we turned and were walking in the shade. We reached the bus stop and waited. I was nervous, as we only had 3 minutes to get from the bus to the train, and now the bus was late. It was about 6 minutes late, so there was no catching the train. We'd have to wait for an hour for the next one. The bus driver even told me his delay was caused by the traffic in the town he had just come from. My phone showed me that our train was 2 minutes late, but that was not enough. It needed to be late for longer for us to be able to make it.

When we reached our stop, we got off and went down the street to the train station as quickly as possible. Before we had reached the bottom of the street, we could see our train arrive. I started running while holding Tammy's hand, and Emmy was right behind us. Randy was further back, as he had Sammy. We ran and were able to get on the train, holding the door open until all five of us were on. Hallelujah! I was sure glad not to have to wait for an hour until the next one.

We made ourselves comfortable for the one-hour ride to the main train station in Vienna, where we arrived just after 6:30 pm. We then walked to another platform, where our train home was aready standing. We'd only had new trains today, much to Sammy's delight.

By 7:10 pm we were back home. I made dinner for the kids, starting our daily evening routine, and they went into the bathtub. But it was much later than usual, so I told them "no story", as it was already 8:45 pm. Of course that led to crying from both Tammy and Emmy, but I stuck with my decision tonight. I cuddled with them and lay down on the top bunk with them. to cuddle some more. Then Emmy went to his bed, and I went to the kitchen to get something to eat. Soon they were all asleep. Hopefully they sleep in longer tomorrow having gone to bed late, as it's a holiday.

Now it's 2 am and time to go to bed after having finished in the kitchen.