My beloved father, Jere, passed away late this evening (December 12th).

Allah-u-Abha!

In mom's words: Dad embraced himself with his arms, took a deep
breath, lifted his hands in the air, laid them down and closed his
eyes with a smile on his face. When I walked into the room he had the
most serene look on his face.
Shortly after he passed away some of the members of the community arrived and we all gathered to say some prayers together. Mom didn't want him to just lay there all night in bed, so between Marcos, Dick and I we washed and prepared the body for
today's funeral. The casket was brought in at midnight and is hand-made of the finest hard wood. We made last minute decisions last night to have the funeral today (13th of December) and then a memorial later on when mom decides is best. So today's funeral will begin with prayers at 2:00PM local Costa Rican time at our house, at 3:00 PM we will have a car take the casket to the local cemetery. My mom will
then let everyone know when we can have a memorial for the people that
could not attend the funeral. I think she wanted to keep the funeral
down to family members, close friends and the local community.

Dad already had a death certificate and that is being submitted as I
speak...I have a lot to do so I will keep this short.. Love you all very
much.. I slept with mom last night and we stayed up until early hours
this morning talking about things, which was really nice. Hardly slept
at all, so forgive this disorderly informative letter.

Love and more love,
David.