It was an extraordinary sight yesterday morning across the way from Siebert Chapel at Carthage on what should have been a routine last day of final exams. Instead, more than 500 uniformed law enforcement officers from across the state, region, and even the nation stood across from the chapel in silence- coming to pay tribute to Kenosha County Deputy Sheriff Frank Fabiano Jr. who was killed in the midst of what should have been a routine traffic stop. And even before that, as I first walked on to the campus yesterday morning, I could not help but be struck by the plethora of law enforcement vehicles – one after another – from Superior, from Fond du Lac, from Neenah, from La Crosse, from Waukegan, from Oshkosh, and on and on and on – which passed me. That in itself signaled that this was going to be a day like none other.
I was on campus not as a faculty member, but as the anchor for WGTD’s broadcast of the funeral service. You cannot imagine how tricky and challenging such an assignment is- What does one say? How do you say it? And how much is enough without being intrusive? It’s bewildering to me that when the typical television network televises the funeral of a former president like Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan, and the audience can see the images of the funeral with their own eyes, the announcers will almost always prattle on and on . . . especially while music is being sung or played. I found myself afraid of intruding too much – and yet wanting the listeners at home to have at least some idea of the extraordinary scene unfolding before those of us privileged to be there. Sometimes the sound of the event itself was enough- as when Deputy Fabiano’s casket was being carried up the front steps of Siebert Chapel – and off of our mic from outside the chapel one could hear the shoes of the pallbearers on those cement stairs, mixing with the heartbreaking sound of 7-year-old Angelina Fabiano weeping behind her father’s casket. Those kind of moments are better left to the listeners to experience on their own- but then when Angelina and her mom entered the lobby of Siebert, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan was there to embrace them both – and that was a moment to tell the listeners about, albeit with a huge lump in my throat.
One interesting thing- the music in this funeral was done almost entirely by the choir from the Fabiano’s home parish- and it was what you might expect from a small, earnest church choir. As jarring as it was at first to hear that kind of singing in Siebert where we are used to the accomplished singing of the Carthage Choir, it was also good in that it helped to really put a human face on the proceedings – So much of this funeral was much larger than life – as well it should have been – but the music was done by entirely ordinary people – but people who knew Frank Fabiano and loved him and wanted to honor him. And that offering from them, for all its technical imperfections, was exquisitely beautiful.
Pictured: The scene in front of Siebert Chapel after the funeral- as the assembled law enforcement officers stand at attention, saluting the casket as it was brought out from the chapel and into the awaiting hearse. This is just one small slice of the throng, which stretched all the way from the southern edge of Lentz Hall to well in front of Tarble Hall – a truly awe-inspiring sight. One reason I chose this particular picture out of all I took is that you can see the outline of interested Carthage students in the windows behind. Our students were very respectful of all this going on in their midst (on the last day of our final exams) – and I think many of them realized that they were witnessing something that they may very likely never witness again in their lifetimes.