By Norman Cain, October 8, 2020 — What happened was when my brother had his funeral in North Carolina, on Saturday. So I was getting ready to go on my way down, but we had a family meeting with my relatives in Atlanta and in Philadelphia and in North Carolina and we decided that we would not go because of the pandemic and North Carolina being a red state. Then I talked to some very, very good friends of mine who had a similar type of situation, and then also I spoke to my oldest daughter who’s a registered nurse and who’s informed about these situations and before I could get the words out of my mouth, she said several times, “Daddy, I do not advise that you go.” Of course, I wanted to go and other relatives wanted to go. Luckily, right before I was getting into this discourse I was talking about the upside of computers. We were able to see the funeral live-streamed. Of course in the various states and whatnot, the family was there together, looking at the live stream. It was an outdoor, gravesite funeral and it was a very beautiful going away service. So what I did was that I alerted my family members in the various states on how to get onto the live stream.
Also, I sent money down, and then I felt that it would be necessary to send down a statement. I was worried about that statement getting there on time because of course, I sent it special delivery and the Creator was with me because I don’t have a printer and I needed to get to a library to be right there to type out my statement with the printer. Every other day, various libraries in the city are open for the computers. So I went down, I think it was to Fourth and Snyder, and I went there with about four paragraphs that I typed up. But they only allow you a half an hour, but because nobody was there, I think I got a full hour so I was able to get that statement out and basically it said that the families of my brother Stuart Allen Cane would not be able to be physically present at the gravesite but our spirits would be there. So I was just praying that the statement got there in time, and it did, because right before the going away sermon, it was read. So that’s the way it happened.
We all wanted to be there, as a matter of fact, a cousin of mine, when she died in North Carolina about five weeks ago we were unable to go there but we sent money and our regards down and whatnot. So it’s a trying time, it really is, because I know for my brother’s wife when he went into the hospital, she was never able to see him again because she couldn’t go into the room with the ventilators and whatnot like that. We just have to keep our prayers out for the souls that have departed and those that do have the virus and for all of us, all the people across the world about that. So that’s what happened there.
Otherwise, if I had gone down, I would have had to leave at 9:45 Friday night on the bus because if I took the plane or train I would have still have had to have taken a bus. And the only bus going to that little town, Tarboro, North Carolina, left at 9:45 in the evenings and it would leave at 1:00 during the day period. The funeral was at the day. Because I said if I was going to go down, I want to go down quickly and come back home, but it meant that I would have to have stayed the extra day.
My family there, you see in the South, everybody wants you to stay with them, there’s warmth, and people together, the food and everything, but they took into account the perils of this pandemic and they had made arrangements for us to be in motels and whatnot. In the end, we decided that we would stay and give our respects from home, thanks to the livestream.
Thanks a lot for giving me a chance to speak what’s on my mind about the death of my brother, because I feel that, I do not feel but I know that I am amongst friends and at this particular time. So that’s very important, to be able to share with friends what your grief is all about. So thank you very much.