Honor & Respect

One of the biggest fears of any wife is to lose your husband.
Being a police wife... it is an even bigger fear.  Sending your husband out each day can be scary.

Yesterday we went to the funeral of a fallen CMPD officer.
Fred worked in the same area as Josh.
Josh and him had just talked that morning so it was very surprising when he got the message that Fred had died in a horrible accident. 

It was a long long day!
I honestly don't know a lot of Josh's coworkers wives. I do know some of the guys, but don't know a bunch of them either.  But on days like yesterday it seems like everyone comes together.

We rode 4 buses and traveled in a big procession to the church.
Josh and his fellow officers fell into line and then we followed the casket, pulled by horse and carriage, down the road and followed his casket into the very crowded church.  Walking down that rode listening to the bagpipes, seeing all the people lining the streets... it was something I will never forget.

Sitting through the funeral, there were a few things that made me tear up.
First of all, the sea of blue.  There were officers everywhere.
I was also moved by the Sgt of the SWAT team.  He had every one of the SWAT officers stand and then the officers that were in Fred's area (which is also Josh's area) stand.  He told them that they had to get back up because Fred always got back up.
The part that made me tear up the most though was when a family friend and fellow police wife stood and spoke.  She talked about how Fred's wife had found her knight in shinning armor that every little girl dreams about.   Except this knight carried a shield. Loved that!

After the funeral we then went to the graveside.  Again, driving down the road, it was so emotional to see the lines of people standing beside the road with flags or with their hands over their hearts or saluting.  Then when we arrived at the cemetery, there again was blue everywhere.

To see some photos click here.
To see some video click here.
 Part 1 of the funeral shows a good view of what it looked like as we were walking down the street to the church.
Part 1 of the processional is long, but shows a view of all the cars and people on the street.

This is the 3rd funeral that I have sat through since Josh joined the department almost 6yrs ago.  I have said this before, and each time I think to myself, "I can't imagine if that was me!"  It would be horrible!!!  I would never ever want to lose my husband, my children's daddy, my best friend.  Josh is my everything and I don't know what I would ever do without him.  However (and please take this the right way) it does make you feel a little bit better that if anything ever happened to him (which I PRAY nothing ever does) he would be remembered with such honor.

It also makes me want to hug my husband a little more, tell him I love him, and get down on my knees and pray for God's protection.