Harper & Lee Plus Three

Said and Done

My mom was never a depressing person. Both high and sober, she wanted nothing but to have fun. I remember her telling me after Aunt Tess's funeral when I was ten, "I don't want nonna that depressing, black-dressing funeral shit with the sad songs. Just wear something nice, throw me in the ground, and call it a day."

    When the funeral planning was all said and done, that's what I tried my best to do for her. I told everyone to only wear bright colors. We had the kids dressed in nice, summery outfits. I was wearing a black dress, since it was the only fancy outfit I had.

We got all the kids into the van with Hazel's help, since John and Sophia were at the funeral home setting up. A lot of the sextuplets were groggy since it was still pretty early. The paparazzi was aware of my mom's passing, so we figured if we did everything at the crack of dawn there would be less people.

We walked into the funeral home around seven in the morning and walked into the room where my mom's closed casket was. I packed breakfasts for the sextuplets while John and Sophia got bagel sandwiches for the triplets and everyone else.  Hazel, still on sexuplet duty, helped me get all the sexuplets fed before we had our sandwiches.

A few people started to trickle in, like some of my distant relatives, family friends of John and Sophia, along with Blake, Levi, and Zoe. Then, we had a surprise visit from Jamie and the rest of our crew. I was shocked to see them without their cameras or any of their other equipment.

"You guys are like family. We had to be here," Jamie said.

"You seriously flew in from LA just to be here?" I asked.

"Of course we did!" she said.

The kids were happy to see her as well. The triplets called her Auntie Jamie sometimes. She sat and kept them occupied, which I was hella thankful for.

When I started looking around, I was surprised. This room was actually starting to fill up. I couldn't believe so many people were here to pay their respects to my mom: a drug addict who spent her whole life in and out of jail.

I noticed Lee talking to a group of girls who were around my age that were helping themselves to our snack table. I saw the girls putting up their hands like they were apologising, then running out of the room. I waved Lee over.

"Did you know them?" I asked.

"You won't believe who they were," Lee said. "Fans."

"Seriously? Here?" I said. "Not gonna lie, they weren't bothering anyone or taking pictures, right?"

"That's not the point. This is private for friends and family only. They don't belong here."

"Yeah. You're right," I said.

We all sat down for the ceremony. We hired a local priest, since my mom was raised Catholic, to say a few words and a prayer. After that, it was time to go to the graveyard. We had a massive, twenty-person limo to take all of us and my immediate family to the graveyard. The triplets in particular were thrilled about their first limo ride. If only it could've been under better circumstances.

We pulled into the graveyard. It freaked me out how many dead bodies were lying in just this one spot. The limo dropped us off where a bunch of people in military uniforms were waiting. I was grateful that they were able to come out and do this on such short notice.

Lee and I got the babies into the sextuplet stroller while Blake, John and Lee each held the hand of a triplet. I pushed the stroller over to the burial site, hoping the babies would continue to stay quiet. They were not only outside, which they loved, but in a new place. They were looking all over. It was a gorgeous, cloudless summer day with birds chirping all over.

The hearse pulled up and the coffin, which had the American flag over it, was taken out by the people in the uniforms, then placed onto a stand. Two of the soldiers, a guy and a girl, folded up the flag into a triangle.

The girl, dead-faced and serious, walked over to me. She was young, probably around the same age as my mom when she left for Kuwait. I never knew my mom before she was deployed, since it was before I was even born, but I wondered what she was like before she experienced all that trauma and used illegal methods to cope with it.

"On behalf of the President of the United States, and the United States Army, and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of appreciation for your loved one's honorable and faithful service," she said.

I took the flag. "Thank you."

She didn't answer, just walked off. I felt kinda embarrassed. I'd never been to a military funeral before. Was I not supposed to say thanks? I held the flag close. It didn't matter. The coffin got lowered into the ground. I shed a few tears as Lee held me.

A bunch of people gave me hugs before we got back into the limo. The sextuplets and the triplets were already getting antsy. We drove back to the funeral home and got everyone into the van. We had a long drive to the place where we'd be eating lunch.

I remembered my mom telling me something a while back at Aunt Tess's funeral. She also hated when people went out for formal dinners or lunches after a funeral. She said, "what's the fun in that?" So instead, we were driving two hours away to where I grew up and eating at the place she would take me on the weekends when she'd have custody.

We pulled up to the giant MacDonalds with a big, colorful playplace. The triplets were literally screaming with excitement. We got the sextuplets into their stroller and let everyone inside. With a couple bucks and a few connections, I was able to get the place closed down so it would be just us inside, along with the staff, of course.

The triplets didn't want to eat at all. They went right over to that playplace. I went up to the counter and ordered my mom's favorite: a filet-o-fish, no cheese, large fries, and a chocolate shake. I'd never had a filet-o-fish because it looked gross, but she always told me to not knock it until I tried it. Today would be a great day to honor that.

We sat down at a table where we could see the triplets playing. I remembered looking down at my mom from the top level of the playplace and seeing different "friends" meet up with her while she ate. She'd shoo them away when I came back down.

Lee grabbed our food and I opened up my filet-o-fish. After a few bites, I changed my mind and tossed it. I never liked cod anyway. Different fishes for different bitches. I ordered my usual quarter pounder with cheese instead.

I broke up my fries into pieces and let the sextuplets try some while we sat there and spent time with each other. I think the day went exactly how my mom would've wanted.