I'm torn between excitement and apprehension at the size of the thing, but since I've negotiated a home base for myself and my loved ones I'm willing to try it again this year.  Richard and I are co-hosting the Minnstf room party with Emily this year.  Really, Emily is doing most of the work, but we're paying for the room. 

I'm pretty much committed to party room duty on Thursday and Friday (after that, I'm just playing it by ear).  Thursday we're helping Emily set up, starting about 3pm.  We're not committed to be open until 8pm, but my personal goal is always to get the door open by 6pm, which is usually enough to make us the first party on the block.  On Friday, Richard and I are the official party hosts. The theme of the evening is a remembrance/wake/celebration for Jim Young.  I've put together a collage board (thanks to all who sent me pictures) and we'll be bringing a few copies of the Dodo Song for singalongs.  I expect a fair number of early Minnstf members to be there, and I think it will a good party.  We'll be open at least 6pm - 1am.  There's no specific time for a memorial - it's really a wake, not a memorial service. 

I hope to see you all (well, some of you) over the weekend. 

It was a very nice service.  The Young family presence was not large, so I'm sure they appreciated the good-sized fannish contingent that managed to make it to the wilds of Fridley in the middle of a work day.  I'm certainly glad I went - but I now regret not having checked with a few people to see if they wanted to car-pool. Both of the people I thought of calling turned out to have problems getting there, so I'm really sorry I didn't follow through on that gut instinct.

I made copies of all the pictures people have emailed me for the fannish collage board and brought them along to give to the Young family. They had their own displays of pictures, of course, but seemed to appreciate having a few more.  Jim's older brother Denny was there, of course, with his 4 daughters.  Beyond that, there were a few cousins and in-laws, and then mostly fans. Almost all of the people that stood up to speak spontaneously after the scheduled readings were fans. Thanks to all who did so - I always find this to be the most moving and important part of a funeral service.

The family members seemed very appreciative, but the minister seemed to be irritated by the number of speakers and almost succeeded in cutting off one of the few family members who rose to speak at the very end. Clearly she wanted to move things along to what she thought was the most important part of the ceremony - her.  This is one of the things I hate about church funerals, and I was afraid we were going to get a repeat of the horrid fire-and-brimstone sermon that marred Gordy Dickson's memorial service.  But I was wrong - when she finally got the floor, the minister actually talked about Jim rather than delivering a sermon. And she did a pretty good job, considering she had never met him.  She had clearly taken the time to read through all the postings on the Caring Bridge site as well as talking to the family, so bully for her. My newly found good-will for the minister was tarnished a little right after the service when she came after a little knot of us talking in the foyer and practically cattle-prodded us into the over-crowded back room, ostensibly so we "could sit down." We weren't blocking traffic and were clearly sharing memories of the deceased in exactly the way people are supposed to do at funerals, so WTF, lady?  Well meaning, but kind of socially challenged for a minister.

Jim's nieces were so sweet, and so sad.  I knew him only as Jim, but he'll always be their beloved "Uncle Jimmy."  I had a chance to chat with Jim's brother Denny for a while, and was surprised to learn that Jim had been in the process of moving back to Minnesota when this happened. So sad - the brothers had been looking forward to finally being back together after years of living so far apart.