Christ & Holy Trinity Church was jammed yesterday, for the funeral of Michael Goodgame.
Mourners filled the pews long before the start of the 4 p.m. service. Later arrivals were seated downstairs, and watched on closed-circuit TV.
Michael Goodgame
Michael — the former Staples High School Student Assembly president and swimmer; the Carleton College Ultimate Frisbee player and newspaper writer; a deep thinker and good friend, killed a week ago in an automobile accident on an icy Minnesota road — was honored by a varied crowd.
His brothers and father spoke movingly of accomplishments and potential. Several female Westport friends recalled their close-knit group, to which Michael offered a special male perspective. His Carleton teammates lent a particularly poignant touch to the proceedings.
A New Orleans-style jazz band played before the funeral began, and their music accompanied his casket out. That was in keeping with Michael’s upbeat character.
The many friends of Michael’s parents — journalist Dan Goodgame and Westport Library communications coordinator Marcia Logan — have been to funerals before. That’s life, when you’re an adult.
But for most of Michael’s friends — young men and women in their early 20s — it was their first funeral. Their first brush with the death of a peer.
We older folks wanted to tell them, “It gets easier with time.”
But it never does.
