by: Marty Chrisman
Cyrus Miller, the local mortician ushered Jesse Duke, Daisy Duke, Cooter Davenport and three of the other Duke cousins, Coy, Vance and Jeb into his office. Cyrus had been a mortician for forty some years, he was used to dealing with distraught family members and this wasn’t first time he’d buried a member of the Duke family. He’d buried Bo, Luke and Daisy’s parents, as well as Jesse’s wife but this time it was harder than usual to go through his normal routine. Bo and Luke were both so young and so well liked in the community.
“I’ll try to make this as quick as possible, Jesse.” Cyrus told him sympathetically “First of all, I need to know if you want the caskets open or closed at the service.”
“Open.” Jesse said “I want to see my boys one last time.”
“Alright. What about the obituaries? I can get most of the information from what I have on file for Martha and Luke’s folks.”
“That’ll be fine.” Jesse said nodding his head absentmindedly
“Are you planning on having a wake?”
“Yes, at the house.” Jesse said in a fiercely determined voice “And I want my boys there. I want ‘em back home one more time before I have to tell ‘em goodbye for good.”
Cyrus arched his eyebrows questioningly “Nobody’s asked to do that in years…” he said quietly “But of course that’s your right, Jesse. I’ll arrange to have the boys brought out to the house sometime tomorrow afternoon. I’m picking up them up this afternoon.” He made some notes on his clipboard. “I assume you want them buried in the family cemetery.”
Jesse nodded without answering. The boys would be laid to rest in the Duke family cemetery on a hill behind the barn along with five generations of Dukes.
“Fine.” Cyrus continued. “I’ll have the boys picked up Friday afternoon and brought to the church and we’ll have the service Saturday afternoon. I’ve already notified Pastor Gibson for you. Are there any special songs you would like to have played at the service?”
“Amazing Grace.” Jesse said naming his favorite hymn.
“And Rock of Ages.” Daisy said, holding back her tears “That was Luke’s favorite hymn.”
Cyrus finished up the arrangements and took Jesse into another room where he would pick out the caskets that he wanted for the boys to be laid to rest in. When Jesse had finished with what he needed to do, they all returned to the farm.
Cooter convinced Daisy and Jesse to rest for awhile. While they were doing that, Cooter, LB, Coy, Vance and Jeb moved the furniture out of the living room (except for the couch) and stored it in the barn temporarily to make room for the two caskets that would be set up in the living room for the traditional three day wake for Bo and Luke. Coy had borrowed some folding chairs from the VFW hall and he set those up in the living room so people would still have room to sit.
“It ain’t right…..” Cooter muttered more to himself than anyone else. “It just ain’t ain’t right. Them boys shouldn’t be dead.”
“Cooter, I think you need to get some rest, buddy…” Vance said
“Don’t tell me what I need!” Cooter snapped “What I need is for Bo and Luke to walk through that door and tell everybody this is just some kinda bad dream! That’s what the hell I need!” Nobody tried to stop him as he stormed out of the house and out into the night.