Please note that each of these pictures can be "double clicked" to enlarge them. Enjoy!
Getting ready for the service at Vicki's house.
Video of the Patriot Guard Riders arriving at Vicki's house to give a motorcycle escort of Vicki and family to the church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCO-FofOHHI
Pictures of the Patriot Guard Riders arriving at Vicki's house and the trip to the church, and flag line in Honor of Allan around the doors to the church:
Arriving at church:
I can only hope, and choose to believe that if dad can peep down from Heaven, that he saw this band of brothers riding for him, and it swelled his ego something big. He would have loved to ride with them in life. He would have been proud of all they are and what they stand for. Vicki intends to pursue riding with them at some point-with his restored/girl-i-fied bike.
More about the Patriot Guard Riders for those interested, here is a link: http://www.patriotguard.org/Home/tabid/53/Default.aspx
A few pictures of people arriving and just before the service started:
I might be biased, but those are some handsome young men right there!
It was a full house! Had to open some of the outside rows of chairs.
The Bulletin:
We all made our way and lined up outside for the Honor Guard gun salute, playing of "Taps" on the bugle and flag ceremony including presentation to Vicki. Later in the day she was able to pass the flag on to Allan's only biological son Gregory Allan Dahlquist.
Surrounded by family, with tears streaming from her sunglasses (and some really cute, highly sentimental, red high heels on) Vicki accepts the last honors from the military. Some of the guests walking up to the reception:
Pastor Brad made it into a picture (although blurry) with Jaime and Mike.
Open mic at the reception for stories and memories and last words to Big Al~
I appologize if some of these pictures are blurry or poor quality. I had limited available to work with. Thank you to those that sent in pictures! I would love to add to, or replace some of these, if anyone else out there still has picutres, please please forward them to me at RandiFayPayton@gmail.com.
On a side note, I thought some might find the following touching. On May 18th two days after the Memorial, my brother took the wedding rings of my mom and dad (as we all called them "the napkin holders") had them sized, put his sweet girlfriend on a motorcycle (Thanks Bev for the ride) and went to Tahoe and eloped before heading home to Washington!
Touching. Sweet. A perfect new beginning for their rings...I think it's fair to say I'm now emotionally exhausted! I believe with all my heart that dad is smiling. Really big. We did good and sent him home exactly how he would have wanted. Like the first person at the open mic said "we won't say goodbye" just See ya later.
And to those of us living on earth still-goodnight friends-see you soon.
~Randi Fay
I am Allan's Sister Chris, I just wanted to thank everyone who came to the memorial service it was so heart warming to see so many people that loved Allan. Those of us that have loved him forever were not surprised at the outpouring of love for him, but were overwhelmed by the amount of people that spoke of how he had helped them. Allan usually kept his family and friends seperate so I did not know most of the people that spoke but it was truly amazing, I was so touched by the Patriot Guard that I could barely keep it together, so on the eve of memorial day when I usualy sent Allan an E-card thanking him for his service to our country, I am a little sad. I really miss him and Corkey.
ReplyDeleteBut am on the other hand happy that they are together again ( Allan always said if anything happend to her he would die) so it is good they are together. Please take a moment to say a little prayer for Allan tomorrow, he was very proud of his time in the Navy, I remember the letters he would send me when he was in Viet Nam they were haunting, and I knew a different person would return. He seldom spoke of his time there, as I have found most viet nam vets don't talk much about it. But we were all truly glad to get him back in one piece. But Allan changed he was tormented by what he saw there, thus the begining of his addiction. But he had the courage to beat that as well, and from what I heard at the memorial he really helped a lot of people, So I have to think that God needed a Master sponser in heaven so he called for the best and Allan had to leave all that loved him.
Thank you all again it meant a lot to the family to hear all of the kind things people had to say.
God Bles you all, and thank you for your service to our country to all of the Veterans.
Chris