Memorial Services

I just went to a memorial service for someone I did not know very well in a club in which I have membership There were about 125 people in a large hall.

The service was almost two hours long and nine relatives spoke at varying lengths. They aged from about 4-63. Everyone single one of them cried except, one, the four year old who could not pronounce most of the words from the Bible verses that were held for him to read. The seventeen year old read his essay for a college admisssions forms titled "The Person Who Has Influenced Me Most". Of course , he had learned all of his grandmother's teachings perfectly and was very proud of that fact. One adult had to leave the stage because he could not stop crying.

Of the five other people who spoke, three cried and one had forgotten to bring the poem she had intended to read. So she winged it and ended with a sob. The youngest children, by this point, were crying in the audience in various states of frustration.

At my father's funeral, which 1800 people attended, no one cried from the pulpit, and no family members spoke. But two of Dad's good friends spoke and and also related some humerous stories about him. The traditional church service lasted about an hour.

Different strikes for different folks!