Rush Funeral Home

It’s a huge building, with bare white walls and a flat roof and a long row of columns along the patio. All the windows are shuttered. No one seems to enter or leave. But every night, the sign outside lights up like a billboard on the highway — “Celentano Funeral Home.” I imagine reading: “Next exit.” I live across the street in the attic of a big green house, overlooking all this. I’ve been trying to convince myself that the building is haunted. Like an ancient shrine, or a Roman monument. There isn’t actually anything wrong with it — I just think it would be easier to have guests over if I had a good story. People are always asking what I think of the funeral home, expecting a clever quip.Here’s what I think about sometimes, when they ask. A boy at my school died a few weeks ago. I didn’t know him, or anyone who knew him, but my mom read about it and called me. I was at Walmart. They have this new thing at Walmart where you can order furniture online and pick it up from a giant orange tower in the store. I punched in my code and waited. My mom, on the phone, was quiet. I think I was supposed to say something — that I knew him, that I was sad, that I was crying in the middle of this Walmart between an oversized orange tower and two men arguing over a Gatorade. In the end I hung up, because for some reason I had started smiling, and this didn’t seem like the right answer. —One night in August, a friend and I went up to my roof for fresh air. We dangled our feet off the ledge, sucking on a handful of ice cubes and watching as the Celentano funeral sign flickered across the street. We could hear a radio program playing in the neighboring house — the weather channel, I think, and later, an orchestra concert. The night settled into its usual rhythm, with the heat and some crickets and the program from next door, until the radio started to play a new tune: “Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez-vous?” There aren’t any lyrics...

The family will receive friends Saturday, from 4 until 7 p.m. ,at the Jim Rush Funeral and Cremation Services, Wildwood Avenue Chapel. A Remembrance of Life service will be held at 2 o’clock Sunday, March 3, 2019,  at the funeral home. ...

She was the daughter of the late Elvis and Eva Nelson. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Robert Powell Estep; her sisters: Mary Embry and Ruth Renfrow; and her brothers: Archie Nelson and Loren “Buddy” Nelson. She was of the Church of God faith.She is survived by her son, Darrell Estep and his wife, Tammy; her grandson, Ryan Estep and his wife, Stacey; her brothers: W.T. Nelson, Bobby Nelson and his wife, Evelyn, and David Nelson and his wife, Phyllis; her brother-in-law, the Rev. Basil Embry; her sisters-in-law: Fern Nelson and Georgia Thomas;  several nieces and nephews; and special friends, Elmer and Ruth Crye.A Remembrance of Life service will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at Jim Rush Funeral and Cremation Services, Wildwood Chapel, with the Rev. Basil Embry officiating. The committal service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Lee Cemetery in McDonald. The family will receive friends from 5 until 7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.We encourage you to share your memories and or condolences with the family by going to www.jimrushfuneralhomes.com. ...