roll, roll me away

Currently I should be in Searcy, Arkansas worshiping with fellow believers at a Disciple Now. Life is funny sometimes though because today,instead, I was fellowshipping with a different group of people. Instead of rejoicing in the birth of new believers I was mourning in the death of a fellow believer.

Parents never want to bury their child, especially not their youngest. Today's memorial for my uncle Greg was interesting, to say the least, but it was just the way he would have wanted it.

Greg was in the Second Brigade Motorcycle Club. When we pulled up to the funeral home in Dover the street was full of motorcyclists in blue jeans and leather vests. First words out of my mouth were "oh my goodness I saw this on Gangland." As soon as we walked in we stuck out because of what we had on. I warned my dad and brother that they would be mistaken as people who worked at the funeral home. Sure enough, five minutes later a biker man was asking my dad a question about a slide show. It was pretty funny hearing some guys behind whisper, "dude man that is his brother he doesn't work here". Sitting through the memorial service was hard. During the song Roll Me Away by Bob Seger almost every "big bad biker dude" had tears rolling down. I held it together until my grandmother started talking. She started off with a story grandpa wanted to tell but couldn't because he was too sick to come. Then she told a few stories of Greg as a young kid and how outgoing he was. She ended with, "I'm glad my ladies from quilting class didn't come, you guys sure would have scared them". Through all the tears came laughter. After she spoke a few of his "biker brothers" spoke. They all had interesting nicknames and leather vests full of patches.

When the funeral was over the bikers all went out to Greg's house where the were going to burn his colors. The loyalty of his "brothers" was incredible. It was obvious how much they all loved Greg. The scary, bad ass looking bikers were all so kind to us and showed a side that most will never get to see of them. It was humbling to be in the presence of so many men that cared so much about my uncle.

My dad's side of the family is indescribable. My dad's sister, Marviene, and I were talking about how impossible it is to describe our family...especially Greg with his "biker gang" and many tattoos (my favorite being the word "hair" across the top of his head).

In the words of my Aunt, "If a memorial service can be perfect, then my brother's certainly was...the crowd, the stories told, the tears during Roll Me Away, and the laughter at the after party all will go a long way to helping me heal. Except for missing the thunderous sound of bikes roaring down the road, everything was exactly as my brother would have wanted it to be...he is smiling (probably without his teeth, but smiling)"

"We never even said a word

We just walked out and got on that bike

And we rolled

And we rolled clean out of sight"