What a funeral! - Part 2

Upon entering the building, I'm immediately greeted by a host who is passing out cards. On one card, there are basic instructions about the funeral process - traffic laws, and their application to cars in a funeral procession - information about where the after-burial family greeting will take place, etc. On the other card was hygiene information and a questionnaire about SARS. The card politely suggested that anyone who had a cough would be banned from the funeral home. I suppressed a dry cough as I passed through the door to the chapel. The same card carried very useful information about the proper method of washing your hands to help prevent the spread of the disease. I confess that this information was very interesting, and I've kept it for future reference.

Unlike funerals I've been to in the past, the family was not seeing well-wishers. I don't know whether this was a personal preference, a form of protection against SARS, or just the way this home works, but eventually, the immediate family left the private chamber to enter the chapel.

A number of family members in succession took the platform to offer their eulogies, and I was struck by the amount of love and affection that were in the room. I didn't know Harry very well. I had only met him a handful of times, since my sister has only been married to Harry's son for a short six years. However, the words I heard and the emotions I saw expressed were very much in line with how I would imagine eulogies for my own father would go. Harry was a year younger than my father, and with my dad in the audience, thoughts of his eventual demise flooded my brain, and I started to cry uncontrollably.

After a short service, it was time for the those who would be heading to the cemetery to get in their cars.