I was on my way to a meeting, and despite running an errand first, I still looked to be on time. I was coming from a direction of town I normally didn’t drive from, so was kind of winding my way the direction I wanted to go. I came upon a funeral procession coming my way, so I pulled over. I am unsure when people stopped pulling over for funeral processions, but I still do. I would feel extremely disrespectful not to.

I really didn’t think anything of it at first. I checked my phone, looked at the time, changed the station on the radio. Then I started noticing truck after truck with the same business logo on it. Red ones, white ones, all from the same business. Then a related business name on more trucks. A related company in a similar field maybe. I started noticing how long this procession was going to be. There had to be hundreds of cars and so many trucks. I saw four different police cars just in my area playing tag team and running up the line. They were trying to keep the line together and not let other drivers interrupt their unity. I even saw one police officer scold some driver trying to interrupt the flow to make his turn. I was still on time and not concerned. I don’t tend to get worked up about things like this, so it’s always interesting to me to watch people just unravel when these things pop up in life.

I thought to myself “Who is this person who has touched so many lives?” So being in a smaller town, I searched online obituaries with the company name I’d been seeing in the search. I don’t know this individual, so I won’t share the name on here, but I was suddenly transported to a feeling of deep respect and love, awe even. The man these thousands of people had gathered to say goodbye to was a father, a coach, a business owner, a man who believed in God and showed that faith it was said in multiple ways to many people. He was said to be extraordinarily generous. He died pursing a hobby he had a passion for. He was five years younger than me. I just kept looking at all the cars and trucks passing me by filled with people that loved him. A life lived well. Love spread abundantly. Light that touched others. Passions pursued fearlessly.

I felt blessed to have that moment to witness such love and be forced to sit with it for as long as it took the cars to go by. Forced to feel the emotion of it, the realness of it. I was thankful I took that winding, unintended route through town that day. Grateful for the message delivered to me, and happy to be late for my meeting.

I had somewhere more important to be. Sitting in my car, witnessing love go by one by one, with their headlights on.