I copied this from another gun forum that a memeber posted about his mother's funeral procession.
It will show the bashers the rest of the story.
Kevin's post below.
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As I posted last week, my mother died last Friday night....
this past week has been, well, shitty on a lot of levels (for example, having to listen to a trip insurance company tell me that her death was a pre-existing condition so they wouldn't likely honor the claim for the beach house she had rented to celebrate surviving her cancer for a year)
but I did get to experience perhaps one of the coolest things I've ever done
my mother was an educator for 40+ years...both in the public schools and Catholic schools....she literally touched the lives of thousands upon thousands of people...
she asked to have her funeral mass at St Mary's in Alexandria, VA, which is one of the oldest Catholic Churches in America (George Washington attended a service there)...she had been the principal of the school affiliated with St Mary's for many years...so it was important to her to have her mass there
she wanted to be buried with my father and brother at Quantico National Cemetery....for those that don't know, Quantico and Alexandria are about 30 miles apart....to make matters more complicated, the only time we could get the service and burial together was on Friday....one of the busiest travel days of the year...and to get from one to the other you have to drive down I-95
the funeral home was unable to get us an escort because of the coordination with various jurisdictions on the travel day...so we scheduled the service and the interment 3 hours apart and just hoped for the best
then, Thursday night, after the viewing, I got a call from my mother's assistant at her current job (principal of a private daycare/beginner school)...she said she had been contacted by the parent of one of my mother's students, and that he was a Fairfax County police officer....his children had all been helped by my mother, and he wanted to try and help us with an escort as a way to pay his respects.....great! I said, and the assistant said he would meet me at the church before the mass the next day
so the next day before the mass a motorcycle cop comes up to me, expresses his condolences, and thanks me for allowing him to do this...I, of course, thanked him for making the time...his exact quote was "If we can shut the county down to drive the President around, or the King of Saudi Arabia, we can do it for important people like your mother"...he was very emotional...a sentiment I encountered a lot last week...my mom was a great educator, and helped a lot of kids
so after the mass I come out, expecting to see a couple of cops...and what do I see?
TWENTY motorcycle officers....as it turns out, the detail this officer is a member of is the DIPLOMATIC ESCORT TEAM for Fairfax County...he wasn't kidding...when the President travels through Fairfax County, these guys lead him...they were all standing at attention at their bikes..
they shut down the George Washington Parkway...there were 10 more cruisers along the route to control traffic...
when we went by Mt Vernon, there were crowds of people standing with their hands on their hearts, taking pictures, as we went by
when we got to Rte 1, they shut it down going southbound as well...when we drove through the part that goes through Ft Belvoir the MPs were there to help and standing at attention
when we got to 95 the entire flow of traffic in the southbound direction was closed...as we picked up the Virginia State Police motorcycle escort to add to our diplomatic detail
there were news helicopters overhead...WTOP news radio (the main news in DC) broke in with a special traffic report about us...
on one of the busiest travel days of the year, 95 was shut down for my mother to go to her final resting place...(something I think she would have loved, especially given the fact that she commuted for hundreds of thousands of miles on that highway in her life, and hated that damn road)
when we got close to quantico the escort thinned and disappeared except for a couple remaining motorcycle cops...I figured they had done what we needed and had peeled off...
nope....as we made the turn to enter the cemetery...all of the officers...the Fairfax County guys, and the staties, had formed a cordon for us and were standing at attention by their bikes as we entered....
i have to admit, I've lived near DC a good portion of my life...i've seen the diplomatic escorts for Presidents, senators, you name it...and that is exactly what my mother got to take her to her final resting place...it was pretty awesome...and pretty moving...
i know there were thousands of people stuck on 95 because of this on Friday that probably hated us....but for a little while, the world around DC stopped so my mom could go to her rest...
i thought that was pretty cool
(and yes, the Fairfax County Diplomatic Motorcycle Escort Unit will be getting some pretty cool things from me and my mom's estate)
It will show the bashers the rest of the story.
Kevin's post below.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I posted last week, my mother died last Friday night....
this past week has been, well, shitty on a lot of levels (for example, having to listen to a trip insurance company tell me that her death was a pre-existing condition so they wouldn't likely honor the claim for the beach house she had rented to celebrate surviving her cancer for a year)
but I did get to experience perhaps one of the coolest things I've ever done
my mother was an educator for 40+ years...both in the public schools and Catholic schools....she literally touched the lives of thousands upon thousands of people...
she asked to have her funeral mass at St Mary's in Alexandria, VA, which is one of the oldest Catholic Churches in America (George Washington attended a service there)...she had been the principal of the school affiliated with St Mary's for many years...so it was important to her to have her mass there
she wanted to be buried with my father and brother at Quantico National Cemetery....for those that don't know, Quantico and Alexandria are about 30 miles apart....to make matters more complicated, the only time we could get the service and burial together was on Friday....one of the busiest travel days of the year...and to get from one to the other you have to drive down I-95
the funeral home was unable to get us an escort because of the coordination with various jurisdictions on the travel day...so we scheduled the service and the interment 3 hours apart and just hoped for the best
then, Thursday night, after the viewing, I got a call from my mother's assistant at her current job (principal of a private daycare/beginner school)...she said she had been contacted by the parent of one of my mother's students, and that he was a Fairfax County police officer....his children had all been helped by my mother, and he wanted to try and help us with an escort as a way to pay his respects.....great! I said, and the assistant said he would meet me at the church before the mass the next day
so the next day before the mass a motorcycle cop comes up to me, expresses his condolences, and thanks me for allowing him to do this...I, of course, thanked him for making the time...his exact quote was "If we can shut the county down to drive the President around, or the King of Saudi Arabia, we can do it for important people like your mother"...he was very emotional...a sentiment I encountered a lot last week...my mom was a great educator, and helped a lot of kids
so after the mass I come out, expecting to see a couple of cops...and what do I see?
TWENTY motorcycle officers....as it turns out, the detail this officer is a member of is the DIPLOMATIC ESCORT TEAM for Fairfax County...he wasn't kidding...when the President travels through Fairfax County, these guys lead him...they were all standing at attention at their bikes..
they shut down the George Washington Parkway...there were 10 more cruisers along the route to control traffic...
when we went by Mt Vernon, there were crowds of people standing with their hands on their hearts, taking pictures, as we went by
when we got to Rte 1, they shut it down going southbound as well...when we drove through the part that goes through Ft Belvoir the MPs were there to help and standing at attention
when we got to 95 the entire flow of traffic in the southbound direction was closed...as we picked up the Virginia State Police motorcycle escort to add to our diplomatic detail
there were news helicopters overhead...WTOP news radio (the main news in DC) broke in with a special traffic report about us...
on one of the busiest travel days of the year, 95 was shut down for my mother to go to her final resting place...(something I think she would have loved, especially given the fact that she commuted for hundreds of thousands of miles on that highway in her life, and hated that damn road)
when we got close to quantico the escort thinned and disappeared except for a couple remaining motorcycle cops...I figured they had done what we needed and had peeled off...
nope....as we made the turn to enter the cemetery...all of the officers...the Fairfax County guys, and the staties, had formed a cordon for us and were standing at attention by their bikes as we entered....
i have to admit, I've lived near DC a good portion of my life...i've seen the diplomatic escorts for Presidents, senators, you name it...and that is exactly what my mother got to take her to her final resting place...it was pretty awesome...and pretty moving...
i know there were thousands of people stuck on 95 because of this on Friday that probably hated us....but for a little while, the world around DC stopped so my mom could go to her rest...
i thought that was pretty cool
(and yes, the Fairfax County Diplomatic Motorcycle Escort Unit will be getting some pretty cool things from me and my mom's estate)
jk. Even cops do a good thing every once in a while! :P
