Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Sunday, April 14. 2024

A good funeral


We got together - friends, cousins, relatives, etc from all over the country for my father-in-law's funeral down in New Jersey for a few days. Montclair is pleasant.


Roman Catholic funeral Mass in their family church (had not been there since marrying), then trooped through charming Paterson to the cemetery to bury the ashes, then a fine buffet lunch with an open bar of course - and my daughters made a slide show. Spend a few days mostly with all of my wife's mostly Irish relations. A jolly crew. They all loved the old shanachie, who would have been 97 this week.


It was a family and friends reunion. Had some of my sibs and my grandkids there too, which makes things perfect. 


For the Mass, you must do approved readings and sing approved songs. My son did the eulogy and my daughters did the readings. At the lunch, people stood up and told stories. So good and right. Celebratory of a well-lived life. 


Many readers know this tear-jerker which is mostly scriptural lines:



Posted by Bird Dog at 08:52 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Good to hear the old fellow got a fine, traditional send-off. But make sure that the family gets together for more than just funerals, eh?
#1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2024-04-14 10:29 (Reply)
Several months ago I attended the funeral of a Sephardic Jew, born in Morocco. She lived to 88 with an active life, until she fell and fractured her wrist four months before she died. The rabbi made a double-good contribution to the funeral, with his singing- excellent voice- and his talk on the deceased, which could not have been improved on. “Oh yes, that’s just how she was.” To listen to songs/chants that are thousands of years old places one in history.

After the funeral, we went to her home for a Moroccan buffet, with rum and coke on the side, for those who wished to imbibe. I had helped chop vegetables the day before. At the dinner I played an Edith Piaf song on my boombox, which to me characterized her and was of her generation. She had grown up in Morocco speaking Arabic and French. Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien. Coincidentally, the previous year I had found in the remainder bin at Half Price Books a CD of Raquel Bitton singing Edith Piaf songs. Bitton was my friend’s maiden name.
#2 Gringo on 2024-04-14 11:28 (Reply)
I merely note that cremation is NOT the way of the Roman Catholic church.
#3 Mark Matis on 2024-04-14 14:51 (Reply)
Cremation is OK (burial is preferred), as long as the ashes are kept together and interred in a vault or the ground (i.e. buried).
#3.1 Mark on 2024-04-14 20:32 (Reply)
The priest was ok with it.

He was wonderful, by the way.
#3.1.1 Bird Dog on 2024-04-15 08:27 (Reply)
Novus Ordo? Or Trad?
#3.1.1.1 Mark Matis on 2024-04-17 07:00 (Reply)
Thank you for sharing. Condolences to you & your family. Yes, On Eagles Wings is one of the favorite songs for Catholic funerals.
#4 Paul Treder on 2024-04-15 17:31 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.