Mike Danced with the Grave Digger!

Like almost everyone who knows him, Mike has been with a local funeral home for nearly 40 years as a Funeral Director. Over the years we have been married he has had several situations that there is no way we will ever forget. This situation is so unique that I just have to share it because this doesn't happen to just anyone, but it happened to us. I was still a hairdresser working at Alternatives Salon on the front street in Sweetwater at this time and it was a Monday. The funeral home owned the building we rented, so it was on the same block. I was used to seeing Mike during the day a lot because he was next door but realized about 3 PM I had not heard from him. I did think it was odd but brushed it off until we got home Monday night. I found out later why I had not seen Mike the entire day and what a surprise it was. The funeral home had a scheduled burial that morning. The family was already at the funeral home and all were lined up in their cars ready to go to the graveyard but the gravediggers were not ready for the family to come. All the funeral home employees were ready to go and the staff was waiting for the gravediggers to call. At this point, the staff was quite aggravated with these contractors because they were causing the funeral home to run behind the scheduled burial. When they finally did call Mike answered by putting the phone on speaker to take the call and yes I'm sure the caller sensed his aggravation. Well, the conversation got heated fast and the guy on the other end proceeded to use foul language. He finally cursed at Mike and called him a select name that was inappropriate and of course, it made Mike mad. By this time everyone in the room knew Mike and this guy was arguing because the phone was on speaker, so everyone heard what was being said. The conversation finally got to the point where Mike could not take anymore, he told the contractor I will be up there in just a minute, he hung up the phone and out the door, he went.

Mike got to the graveyard in just a few minutes to confront these people but what he encountered was one for the record books. There were 2 guys in a company truck between the ages of 20 to 30 years. One of them was a buff guy who looked like he worked out all the time and he was a head taller than Mike. He came right up to Mike and started cursing him immediately, the other guy was much smaller and he ran and hid behind the truck. This confrontation started a push-and-shove thing until Mike and the big guy were in a fight. Mike said he was acting very strange because he just kept coming after him even after he was knocked to the ground. By this time the other employees of the funeral home had arrived and had called the police. When the police arrived along with our Sunday school teacher who just happened to be the city police chief they had a full-blown circus with this big boy. For our Sunday school teacher/police chief it was a bit funny but not really. He had a job to do even though we went to church together. The big guy had taken quite a beating and they had to cuff him due to every time Mike put the guy down, he told him to stay down on the ground, but the man would not. He kept getting back up and coming after Mike. After getting the situation under control there was a mass search of the company truck and what they found explained the series of events.

The company truck contained meth and the products to get high with meth along with several illegal firearms that were not supposed to be carried in a company truck. The big guy took a good beating but was so high he didn't think he was hurt, that's why he kept coming after Mike. It is a known fact that Methadone addicts will tackle a moving car. The guy did have to go to the hospital and was admitted, treated, then released. There was legal action taken after the fact but each party settled without charges being brought to either party because of the illegal drugs and arms in the company truck. I guess the gravediggers

and the company they worked for, just wanted this situation to go away.