constant stranger
Well-known member
I buried my mother today. I planned a minimalist graveside ceremony and by golly, it went pretty well. Five neighbors from the village and eight of her friends showed up on a bitterly cold day and we said goodbye. I spoke a brief eulogy praising her better attributes through life and omitted the long list of agonies she subjected me to and which I chose to accept as her volunteered caregiver son.
We witnessed the coffin lowered into the ground and we all dropped a long stemmed rose onto the box as we departed the graveside....there was a gesture of closure in that.....our Presbyterian pastor tells me he'll suggest including that part in future funerals.
The good news is that my brother and I are talking now.....after 15 years of total estrangement. He loathed our mother and refused to attend the funeral. Nevertheless he congratulated me on managing the ceremony and also for my consenting to care for her all these years. Would have been nice to have had some help from him but that's part of the past now.
It's time now to move forward. I've got my health, I'm not poor and I've discovered that I have a few more friends than I thought....
Who knows, maybe I'll discover what it's like to be happy again?
We witnessed the coffin lowered into the ground and we all dropped a long stemmed rose onto the box as we departed the graveside....there was a gesture of closure in that.....our Presbyterian pastor tells me he'll suggest including that part in future funerals.
The good news is that my brother and I are talking now.....after 15 years of total estrangement. He loathed our mother and refused to attend the funeral. Nevertheless he congratulated me on managing the ceremony and also for my consenting to care for her all these years. Would have been nice to have had some help from him but that's part of the past now.
It's time now to move forward. I've got my health, I'm not poor and I've discovered that I have a few more friends than I thought....
Who knows, maybe I'll discover what it's like to be happy again?