The song has ended, but the melody lingers on...
With my uncle's impending funeral this week, I've remembered a few things from my childhood regarding funerals. You have a very different angle of perspective when you were a child who never experienced much death.
My earliest memory was hearing my parents talk about a funeral my dad was attending. I remember begging to go with. This was a work colleague of his. Somebody I'd never met. My reasoning: I've never been to a funeral. I really want to go. I didn't go.
The first funeral I remember going to - and may well have been the first I ever attended - was my maternal grandmother's funeral. I was in my early teens. She had been terminally ill so it was expected. I don't remember much about the funeral at all - I remember the day she died, but not much about the funeral. However, I do remember everyone gathering at an aunt and uncle's house for snacks afterwards. I was helping myself to a few snacks - as was everyone else - when an uncle made a comment to me. Something to the effect of "well, of course we'd find you at the food". Being an overweight teen, that was the memory I took with me... And I remember thinking I'd hardly even taken much... I threw down the snacks and ran out crying. He called out "I was joking". It did not go down well with the rest of the family. Somehow he didn't see that he'd done anything wrong, and even seemed to think that they'd side with him and laugh at his joke.
You hit your late teens and find yourself attending some very sad funerals - those of friends who have departed this world too soon. Unexpectedly. Mostly by road accidents.
Probably the worst I've attended was my brother in law. He was in his early thirties and his death was
My nieces were so young at the time. I remember thinking that I'd never even known death at their age, and they had to deal with the sudden loss of their father.
This is my 3rd uncle's funeral I'll be attending in the past few years. I don't believe any were ready to leave, none of them even hitting their 80's yet. But life had other plans.
My earliest memory was hearing my parents talk about a funeral my dad was attending. I remember begging to go with. This was a work colleague of his. Somebody I'd never met. My reasoning: I've never been to a funeral. I really want to go. I didn't go.
The first funeral I remember going to - and may well have been the first I ever attended - was my maternal grandmother's funeral. I was in my early teens. She had been terminally ill so it was expected. I don't remember much about the funeral at all - I remember the day she died, but not much about the funeral. However, I do remember everyone gathering at an aunt and uncle's house for snacks afterwards. I was helping myself to a few snacks - as was everyone else - when an uncle made a comment to me. Something to the effect of "well, of course we'd find you at the food". Being an overweight teen, that was the memory I took with me... And I remember thinking I'd hardly even taken much... I threw down the snacks and ran out crying. He called out "I was joking". It did not go down well with the rest of the family. Somehow he didn't see that he'd done anything wrong, and even seemed to think that they'd side with him and laugh at his joke.
You hit your late teens and find yourself attending some very sad funerals - those of friends who have departed this world too soon. Unexpectedly. Mostly by road accidents.
Probably the worst I've attended was my brother in law. He was in his early thirties and his death was
My nieces were so young at the time. I remember thinking that I'd never even known death at their age, and they had to deal with the sudden loss of their father.
This is my 3rd uncle's funeral I'll be attending in the past few years. I don't believe any were ready to leave, none of them even hitting their 80's yet. But life had other plans.
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