Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Coyote Ugly just the ones I make up in the story.

Chapter 7: The Funeral and Setting a Date

11:45am May 25th

Hillview Memorial Park, South Amboy, New Jersey

I was sitting in the family room which is inside the mausoleum at the memorial park where my mother is buried playing with my fingers and thinking about what was going to happen 15 minutes from now. I was going to lay my son to rest. We still haven't heard back from the coroner who did the autopsy to find out Josiah's cause of death so we still don't know the real reason he was taken from us so soon. Kevin walks up to me and sits down next to me.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kevin asks.

"I'm fine. I don't know why I'm so nervous," I said.

"You don't have to be. You have me and your family beside you so you don't have to worry. The priest is ready to start."

I nodded my head and took Kevin's hand as he led me out of the mausoleum and through the park to where my mother was buried. Josiah's grave marker was already there. It read:

Josiah Andrew O'Donnell

Born and Died May 3, 2000

A Sweet Little Boy

Now an Angel Among Angels

It was perfect and fit him perfectly. I started getting teary eyed when I saw his light blue casket slightly above ground. The priest began talking about when a baby dies it's painful especially for the parents who waited nine months to hold and spoil their baby but it's suddenly taken away from them. Then the priest said the same prayer that was said at my mom's funeral. That's when I started to cry. Kevin and my dad put their arms around me to hold me up. Then it was time to put the roses on Josiah's casket. Everyone took a rose, said a little something and put their roses on his casket. When I got up there I whispered "I love you my dear sweet little boy, be good for grandma" and put the rose on his casket.

After a few minutes the park caretakers lowered his casket into the ground and we all started to walk away to our cars to make the drive to my dad's for lunch. Before I started to head towards the car I had a leftover rose which I put on my mother's grave and asked her to keep Josiah safe. I then headed to the car.

At my Dad's house people were coming up to me and telling me to stay strong. One person tried to change the subject and asked when the wedding was. I said I didn't know. Then my phone rang. It was the coroner. I went into the downstairs bedroom and shut the door.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Is this Violet Sanford?" the coroner said.

"Yes this is."

"Hello Violet this is Barry Roberts, the coroner for the city of New York calling. I'm sorry for not getting back to you sooner but we've been so busy lately with autopsies but now I have the chance to talk to you about the results of your son's autopsy. Do you have a minute?"

"Yes I do."

"Good. I'm going to say this first, you did nothing to cause your son's death in any way, okay? Your Son died of an aneurysm that burst in his brain. It happened so quickly that he was in no pain at all. You did everything right with your pregnancy just know that, okay?"

"Okay thank you for calling. I'll let my fiancé know. Bye." I said as I hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Kevin asked me, coming into the room.

"That was the coroner. Josiah died of an aneurysm that burst in his brain. He said that it happened so quickly that Josiah was in no pain. He also told me that I did everything right in my pregnancy," I said.

"Well that's a relief. How about we leave here and go to the pier to relax? We need to talk about setting a date for the wedding. Everyone's been wondering about that."

"Okay that sounds like a plan," I said as we said goodbye to everyone and left my Dad's house and drove to our spot at the pier. Once we got there we got on top of the roof of the car and looked out at the bridge.

"Okay I'll start. How about we choose the date first then where we're getting married," Kevin said.

"Well how about a July 2002 wedding? Since you're graduating from the fire academy in December of this year and you'll be working as a rookie for almost a year after that that 2002 would be a perfect year for the wedding. I was thinking July 14th," I said.

"July 14th sounds good. I was thinking we could get married here, at the pier."

"The pier? But there's a trash barge down here and sometimes there are dead fish," I protested.

"Then we'll order a bunch of good smelling flowers. That will mask the smell," he suggested.

"Okay you win. We'll have the wedding at the pier. I just hope it'll be nice outside on the 14th," I said as Kevin leaned in closer.

"Like I always say, I like winning," he said as we kissed.

4:00pm

St. Mary's Hospital Newark, New Jersey

Kevin and I went to the hospital to see Gloria, Danny and Aaron who were all in a regular room together. When we entered the room Gloria was changing Aaron's diaper with the help of a nurse while Danny was looking up something on the internet on a laptop that the hospital loaned him.

"Hey you two come on in. I'm almost finished with changing Aaron. How was the funeral?"

"Good. Kevin and I have something to tell you two," I said.

"What? Is it about the wedding and setting a date?" Gloria asked.

"Yes we set a date. The wedding's going to be almost 2 years from now, on July 14, 2002."

"Oh that's a great date for the wedding Vi. In the middle of summer so it'll probably be a nice day out."

"Yeah and I hope you'll be my maid of honor Gloria," I asked her.

"Of course I will. Me and Danny will have to do physical therapy for 6 to 8 months so that gives us time to get ready." Gloria said.

"We kept you and Danny and your recovery in mind and the fact that Kevin will have to get used to being a firefighter too."

"Once Danny and I get out of here you and I will have to look at dresses."

"Sure that'll be great," I said as we talked some more. I just knew that everything was going to be fine from here on out.