Funeral for Tom's brother, Steve

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Tom's siblings are, in order, Steve, Tony, Betsy, Tom, and Timothy.

We just got back from the funeral for Tom's brother, Steve Anderson. Steve was born in 1945 and passed away three months ago after a battle with cancer. He is survived by his three daughters. He was interred nine years to the day after his wife, Linda. The funeral was at the Bay Pines National Cemetery, across the bay from Tampa. It was a really nice ceremony, complete with the 21-gun salute. After serving in Vietnam, Steve dedicated himself to veterans causes and had a positive effect on many, many lives. He will be missed.

 Flying to Tampa on Monday: 




Funeral on Tuesday:

Melanie giving the eulogy. The line that stuck with me was "He was there for your first breath, and you were there for his last breath." She's an excellent writer.


It was a little chilly in Florida.


After the funeral, we went to lunch a favorite pizza place where the boys got to meet some new cousins. This is six-month-old Lucas, son of Chelsea. He's a fun baby that doesn't mind being passed around. He was a big hit with James and Joseph.


Lucas's big brother, Carter, is in ROTC and was very dashing in his uniform.


The funeral was, coincidentally, scheduled on Tom's birthday. We celebrated with a piece of cheesecake and a cow stuffie that the kids won out of the claw machine.


Tom's younger brother, Tim, drove down from Virginia and his older brother, Tony, flew up from Bolivia, but poor Tony came down with pneumonia along the way and ended up missing the funeral as he was admitted to the VA hospital about 500 yards away. We went to visit him for a couple of hours in the afternoon. He's one of those cheerfully grumpy guys who has a lot of opinions on the government, but dearly loves his family.



Flying home on Wednesday:









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