When I pulled up into the driveway on Rand Road, I accidentally locked the keys in the car in a way you can only do with cars that lock automatically. I locked my phone and wallet in there with them, but somehow was lucky enough to have placed my shoes outside the car before shutting the door, or I'd have had to show up barefoot to the funeral. I wandered through the garden and saw someone rustling around by the pond. It turned out to be Jason. He put on some presentable clothes and we drove to the cemetery on the Old Concord Road, just across the road from where the Bennett boys place lilacs every Memorial Day. On the way over I used Jason's cell phone to call the mechanic, Danny's. He said he could go up and get my keys out of my car while we were at the funeral and leave an invoice there for me. So we parked in the cemetery and as we walked up to the small crowd we saw two cows pulling something behind them...Jason guessed they had pulled Shirl's casket up to its final resting place. People were placing flowers on it - lilies and wildflowers, zinnias and sunflowers. A Skip McKean fuel truck drove by. The religious figure presiding over the service said a short prayer and spoke of Shirl as an old friend. Then Morris Day, the well digger told the story of the time when he was ten and he borrowed Shirl's horse, Duchess, and walked her out on frozen Pleasant Pond, and when he came back and told Shirl what he had done, "Shirl kicked my ass, and that's the truth. That was the only time cross words were spoken between us." Then his nephew Tim/Mo spoke. He said Shirl always worked with them and taught them how to do things the old way. He said, "Whenever we were bringing hay in, he would leave some of it loose. I don't know about any of you, but I could get in a load of loose hay right now." He was followed by two of Shirl's great nieces. Then several people stood up and told stories about him. After it was all over, we went up and hugged Lucy. She asked me what I've been up to and said, "I have your letter! Shirl always saved it. He took a lot of pleasure out of it."