That was certainly a hard day for all.? I am off in a hr. to catch my plane.? Jimmy called last night.? He goes clothes shopping today.? He sure sounded excited and for him, that is BIG.? Known as Mr. Cool.? Loveya, Connie -----Original Message----- From: Lynn Vondran <lynnvondran@att.net> To: padutch-life@rootsweb.com Sent: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 9:29 pm Subject: [PD-LIFE] The Funeral Only one of the girls died, but I heard, today, that two more could go either way, yet. I walked over to the steps of the church, thinking I would get there before a whole lot of people did, but already it was so full of perfumes that I had to turn around quickly and get back to our porch. So, I just watched as people paraded to the church. There were a few hundred who attended, and it was a treMENdous amount of folks who went to the cemetery. I was talking to a neighbor who lives around the corner and up a block, and she said she didn't think all the cars would be able to make it into the cemetery where Ashley was being buried!!! We had to move our cars off the street, to allow for parking for the funeral, and I got a call from my neighbor asking me if we had any spaces left in our parking lot in the back of our property. They had filled up both parking lots for the church, and completely around the block and farther. There was a limo, which everyone thought brought Kenny Rogers to the funeral. But, I told them that a group of girls came in it. I have no idea why they came in a limo, maybe it was something to do with an inside thing with Ashley, when they would get together, I don't know. Anyway, the reason people thought it might be Kenny Rogers, is because Ashley's dad was Kenny Roger's long time Road Manager, and Ashley had appeared on Kenny's show a few times. There were people even double parked, because they couldn't find ANY parking anywhere nearby. The limo had to keep double parking, and moving the whole time they were inside the church, which was well over an hour and a half. This neighbor said that the bartender should have flagged the girls, that it's all his fault, but I disagreed with her. Yes, the bartender is partly to blame if they were sloshing around like drunken fools, but they were regulars there, and he probably knew their limit, or what he thought was their limit. I said it's about time people take personal responsibility for their actions, because this kind of thing will continue, as long as people play the blame-the-other-guy game all the time. In other words it's everyone else's fault but my own for my actions. It's really sad, but it's so true in so many cases. They are still investigating the accident, and asking for witnesses to come forward. Toxicology tests were taken, but no results yet. I asked someone when they will be in, and they said it could take up to 2 weeks, because it's not like a breathalizer test, which they couldn't get because everyone was unconscious at the time of the accident. Oh, and their ages ranged from 21 to 23. I did get to talk to a few people. Ashley's sister-in-law, one of my kids, from when they were in marching band at the high school, and who is a very close friend of Lindsey's, came down to talk to me before she went back into the church to get something to eat, after the burial. It was so GREAT to see her again. She looked very tired, because last night the closed casket veiwing at the funeral home went for three and a half hours_she said it was a NON-STOP line of people. They just kept coming and coming. After I told her I wanted to make it to the funeral at the church, her eyes got really big, and her mouth dropped open. She remembered about my allergies (before it was discovered that it was Chemical Sensitivity) from all the years I helped out at the high school with all sorts of things, and how they use to make sure to get fake flowers for me, and she said that it definitely wouldn't have been good for me to go to the viewing, nor the funeral, because everyone REALly had the fumes piled on and it was getting to the point that it bothered people who usually aren't bothered by it. She said she could see that I was swollen just from standing on my front porch that whole time, that she was sure they would all understand, and she would give them my condolenses. So, that made me feel a little better. I just missed Ashley's dad and step-mom, as they were driving by our house. I was a couple seconds too late to catch them, but that's okay, because they looked like they were ! mentally, and physically drained, too. Well, that's about as much as I can remember right now, about today. Just so sad. Thanks for asking, it helped me write about it. :o) Lynn John & Joyce wrote: thanks lynn and mike---it's good to be back, and to catch up; as i type this, a long caravan of motor bikes are heading west on route 30, just below our back yard. did you attend the funerals of victims in the columbia crash? ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PADUTCH-LIFE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.