Keys...No longer Missing

The funeral home called today.  They had my father’s keys. The day my father died, we got his shoes and wallet.  They told us that they had to cut his shirt so we would not be getting that back.  We did have about 2 hours in the hospital to visit with him after he died.  That allowed time for my brother to get back into town to visit as well.  It was a hard scene.  It was a hard time.  It was a hard day.  He died about 11:15 that day.  We left the hospital around 4 in the afternoon and the body was then turned over to the funeral home.  

We looked for my fathers keys at I was worried my mom would loose the one set and we would really be in trouble with no keys to house or car.  We looked thinking they would still be on the floor in the kitchen among the discarded plastic wrappers the EMT’s ripped off medical supplies, gadgets and tubes that they used to try to save my father’s life.  After sweeping up all those things, the keys were still missing.  We looked under the kitchen table, behind the refrigerator and looked in odd corners thinking that in all the commotion the keys were placed in some odd place.

 We never found them. My father was defined by his keys.  He had keys to everything on his big key ring.  If we could never open a door, he had the keys to that unopened door.   I even went by the hospital about a week after he died and asked if the keys were still there.  They explained the inventory procedure and that if there was any more personal effects left, they all go to the funeral home.  We figured that they must be there but never checked.  We were consumed with grief and with plans and making arrangements.  I took mom’s keys and got new ones made.  Now I had a set to everything. 

The funeral home called today.  They had my father’s keys.  My mother would be at home to get them when the director arrived.  It will be like that awful day happened again.  The bringing of the keys means finality.  The bringing of the keys means reality.  The bringing of the keys means we are less one heart. 

 The funeral home called today.  They had my father’s keys.