The funeral home sent a note saying they had a tree in their lobby decorated with an ornament for everyone that died this year, and we could come by and put a small note inside of it. After Christmas, we could stop in and take it home.
The tree is beautiful. Deep satiny red balls with names in silver paint by someone with absolutely beautiful penmanship.
They have a good system. They start at the top of the tree with January, and so on down to the bottom.
My mom and the staff member and I circled the tree, looking near the middle (May) about three times. There was an ornament with our same last name, but a different first name. I remarked that I would have seen the coincidence if that man would have passed away around the same time, and the staff member said "Uh-oh."
He went into the office and came out in about 3 minutes with a blank ornament in his hand.
Yep, it WAS Don's ornament, parked right there on the front side of the tree. As a matter of fact, the "wrong" one was actually the first one I saw when I walked in the door.
And of course he wasn't the only staff member there. Everyone else had to come out and apologize to me, too. I'm still chuckling. Don would have laughed too.

Mer, What an excellent idea that funeral home has. A friend of mine's dad owns the one that we used for Doug and my parents and I will pass this tradition on to him. I'm sure Don would have laughed with the wrong name as well. Take care.

Dear Mer, it sounds like a beautiful idea.

We got a similar letter from the funeral home where my fil was buried. It is a long drive for us, so I dont think any of us will be able to go. It is good to hear that they do a nice job, and the tree was beautiful!

Good that you had a laugh, and knew that Don would laugh about it also!!!