My first funeral
Monday, 23 August, 2004
Aunty Rosa died last week. Aunty Rosa was married to Uncle Derek, the one who drowned in the pool last Christmas. She was my stepmother's mother and she was in her eighties. She had had a stroke a couple of weeks ago, then a haemorrhage, then she slipped into a coma. They thought she was going to go on Tuesday but she held out 'til close of business on Friday. The funeral's this Wednesday at Woronora cemetary and crematorium. That's the place where Ben and I used to drive around in circles with George when we were on our L's. It's organised by denomination which I find very old-fashioned and funny because why wouldn't you want to be buried next to a Baptist if you were an Anglican? I've never been to a funeral before. What should I be expecting?Posted in:
Powered by Expression Engine 1.7.1
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
|
|
Disqus comments
Other comments
Emotion! Funerals, even if you don’t know the person very well, are very emotional and sombre at the same time. Sometimes I’ve been struck by how much I’ll miss them, sometimes I’ve just been struck by how awful life sometimes is or the suddenness of death.
But definitely, it’s an emotional and difficult time. I recommend not doing anything afterwards…
Looking forward to Yum Cha on Saturday!
George
I went to a funeral and they had this really fun party afterwards and people where drinking etc, so it wasn’t what I expected.
Thanks George! Unfortunately I have staff meeting that afternoon ...
It depends on how old the person was, and whether they were a Christian or not. I’ve been to four funerals so far: each was different.
The best of a person is remembered, and heightened: the worst aspects forgotten; forgiven.
The room at a crematorium looks like a church, but without the same sense of Christ about it. It’s a sombre, religious building, designed to give comfort, I suspect.
It’s always a sad time, even if it’s a hopeful one. Even though you can be happy that a Christian is with their Lord, you have to mourn that they’re not around anymore. Often the sense of grief that has been in the background in the time leading up to the funeral will hit home in full force at some point during the service.
And it’s good to have people around you as you grieve: even if they don’t say anything, it still helps.
don’t wear mascara
just in case.
Death sucks. The finality of it.
The good thing about death is you won’t care after it happens to you.