You are a fine person, Steven.
I had the same experience penni did at the cemetery-- i was startled to see the tininess of the hole dug for my mother's ashes.
Also, penni, you mentioned making a joke about the coffin rental and it not being appreciated. That reminded me of the occasion on which my father, sister, husband, aunt and I drove to the cemetery to bury my mother's ashes (the cemetery was a choice made by Daddy; he wanted to have his ashes buried in his family's plot, and so Mama, who would have hated this, since she loathed everyone in Daddy's family, was buried there, too), a drive of about an hour and a half. At about the half way point, Daddy let out an anguished cry, "I forgot the cremains!"
Nothing could be done about it, because the arrangements had been made to meet the head of the cemetery there at a particular time, and there was no way to contact him. So we proceeded, and had our little atheist family ceremony at the side of this little perfectly dug one foot square hole without Mama. Everyone was flying back to their respective homes right away, so a gathering the next day was not a possibility. (I returned a month later and went back to the cemetery with Daddy, and Mama too, this time.)
The thing is that the word 'cremains,' a new one to all of us, plus the realization that Mama wasn't going to be at her own 'funeral' rendered everyone in the back seat hysterical with laughter. Daddy and my husband, who was behind the wheel, were the only ones not out of control. We were all just so tired and upset, i'm sure that had something to do with it. Trying to make an excuse, I said to Daddy, "Mama would have thought it was funny, too, Daddy!" He answered, "If you think that, you didn't know your mother," and I said, "Well, she would have thought it was funny if it happened with someone else's cremains." The word 'cremains' caused us to lose control again. (Daddy agreed that this was true, Mama would have thought it was funny under those circumstances.)
I have often embarrassed myself getting the giggles at very solemn occasions.
This post isn't relevant to anything. I was just reminded of the incident by the talk of cremation and of humor in the context of death. |
