The funeral. Lena and Milan came, so we didn't take the van but rather went with two cars. Nina decided she wanted to go and take the kids, so they were the only children there to see Arpi away, his own grandchildren were at home with a sitter.
The weather was not too bad but still chilly - the new cemetery being still too new and the trees small and few, it was rather windy. Someone had the bright idea to hire a priest - a catholic, for that matter - even though Arpi, as far as I know, never showed any symptoms of religion. True, they were both baptised and went to sunday school until perhaps age of 8 or so, but then never went on their own. And both were some kind of members of the communist party in youth. But then if the christians prefer to have such a fake increase in their numbers and lose it immediately, up to them.
Many neighbors from Groš showed up, and many of his co-workers from the oil fields. After the priest's oration, someone from NIS aka Gazprom read a piece, which was so touchingly reminiscing, by style and content, of the years of self-management socialism. And one of their chief engineers was also there: Jozda.
On the way to Banatska I took a shortcut by the old hat factory. Not that it's much shorter, but it's two lights less and the street is practically empty. So we could park in the yard and actually be the first to arrive. Then a small miracle happened: the staff have prepared exactly the number of seats. We had no clue how many people will join the daća - number of neighbors who would is entirely arbitrary, and then also of the coworkers, but none of them did. Amazingly, Raja and Violet weren't too bored and actually found another kid, from regular guests, to play with.
Lena and Milan didn't stay too long afterwards, because the weather was possibly getting worse and he doesn't really like to drive at night.
10-X-2021 - 5-VII-2026