Keeping Funerals Festive
Jul 31st, 2009 Posted in pets | no comment »Most of us attend a funeral and believe we are going to experience everything but fun. Over this past year I spent a lot of time with a friend who really knew how to have fun. He appreciated fun and it was integral to who he was as a person.
Over this past year I watched my friend lose a battle with a disease that had no cure. There’s not a lot of fun in that. Nevertheless, when we shared time together he still knew how to make it fun. This taught me something about the life we all enjoy right now and what comes next.
Even unto the very end of his life, my friend continued to laugh and joke, often sharing a funny email or an absurd story he found in the newspaper.
To this day, I keep an archived file of all the crazy emails he sent me. I in turn, send them on to my other friends. It was a never-ending chain of fun and his emails ensured that it would not be broken.
He died quietly in his sleep. I like to believe that he did not feel pain or loneliness or suffer in any way. I like to think that all the laughter and jokes and sharing goofy stories comforted him right up to the end.
Before he died, my friend was upfront about how he wanted his funeral to be. He desired a memorial service where we could all see his urn and help each other adjust to him shifting from a living friend into our memories. Another friend was going to share a “space” with him; this is where his urn would be kept.
We all got through the service, which felt stilted with rows of straight back chairs and a weepy, fragile mc at the helm. But when all the programmed stuff was done, it was fun to mingle and talk and share stories because what we all remembered was how fun our friend was.
So the answer is yes, a funeral can have a bit of fun in it. Everyone deserves at least that as their friends and loved ones bid them a final farewell.
