No nightmare is worse for a parent then the death of your child. It just is not suppose to be in the order of life’s events. Yet, of course, it does happen.
Such a funeral happened today. The child was a 20-year-old mother of a set of three-year-old twin girls and a two-year-old boy. She had an apparent epileptic fit and downed swimming alone at a nearby pool. (The same pool Mary just to do her washing). I knew her and her family well. The twin girls continued to stay with their maternal grandparents while the boy already lived in another village with his paternal grandparents. I never saw the father, supposedly the son of a preacher man.
This funeral began at the hospital freezer where it was stored. A chapel at the hospital was used for religious service, as the body was claimed. People were transported in a rented bus. The body was placed in the back of a pickup truck along with relatives and the funeral procession slowly snaked it way to the church in our village. The body was then laid on the top of the tomb next to the house for everyone to see and touch. After the review, large amounts of food were given to the many guests who have suddenly appeared. The deceased family members, who have preparing food for days, felt the free food was the only reason people came. This might be true, but for the many children, this might have been the first time they have witnessed the body of young person.
At the end of the day, the body was placed in the tomb by the child’s father behind the tomb of her grandparents and sealed with cement. Only pictures and the child’s offspring remain.
Children Viewing Body
Family Photo, missing a few with one added.
Father with grandson in foreground.
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