Goodbye, Pepete

This afternoon, practically the entire village gathered to say goodbye to Pepete, José Montoro. We met at the monument to the dead and stood there, solemnly, waiting for the cortege to bring him on his final journey.

Even the weather was gray and sad, bearing witness to the sense of loss felt by everyone in Chalabre.

For JM and me, this was a new experience. I had only ever been to one funeral before, when my father passed away. JM has never been to one at all. I suppose this is an odd thing, given our ages, and now, all to sadly, I don't believe this will be our final one.

We weren't sure what to expect, and thought the entire thing was done with great dignity. The mourners all filed into the churchyard, following the hearse. Then, we filed past the Pepete to pay our last respects to him and his family

This has been a very difficult year for the Montoros; one of Pepete's sisters passed away only 6 months ago. Now we are all worried about his sister Anna, because her health is not the best to begin with and she is, quite clearly, taking this very hard indeed.

All of us join together to pray for Pepete and the rest of the Montoro family, in this their time of loss.

Randy