THE FUNERAL PROCESSION

A funny thing happened unexpectedly on our way to an appointment today . . .

As Sister Lindsay eased our car onto the Baltimore Beltway, the traffic seemed heavy for early afternoon. We remained in the right hand lane, because the Interstate 95 exit heading north towards New York was only a quarter mile away. We were driving to Bel Air, Maryland to conduct our monthly inspection of the local missionary apartment.

With a sudden burst of speed, a vehicle that was beside us in the next lane pulled ahead of our automobile and immediately cut in front of our car. It seemed a bit odd that the driver didn't use his turn signal; but instead, he had his emergency flashers engaged. When I looked in my passenger side mirror, I found that the vehicle behind us was also using his emergency flashers. Looking forward again as we rounded the gentle right-hand curve of the elongated entrance ramp headed onto Interstate 95, I could plainly see that there were several more cars in front of us with their flashers blinking on and off like so many fireflies flying in close formation.

And there at the lead end of this fast-moving parade was a large white hearse . . . we were smack-dab in the middle of a funeral procession traveling to a cemetery! Well, what do you do when you find yourself is such a situation? Sister Lindsay calmly turned on our emergency flashers and maintained our position in line, so we looked just like everybody else in the funeral cavalcade.

We did our best to look appropriately solemn like the other mourners until we were on the Interstate; and then my wife shut off the emergency flashers, activated the left-turn signal, and hit the gas pedal. Just for the record: Sister Lindsay's smooth, intuitive reaction when she found herself unwittingly participating in a funeral procession was made possible by the fact that this isn't the first time she has done this. She had a similar experience back home in Carolina a few years ago. To be sure, there is no substitute for experience!

Oh just in case you were wondering,  the hearse pictured above wasn't exactly like the one we encountered on the highway, but this image is so captivating that I decided to include it anyhow.