A Good Day To Say Good-Bye

We didn’t exactly put the “fun” in funeral but if you have to say good-bye, it was a good day for it.

 

Sunday was the funeral for Andrea’s great aunt Emily. It was a sunny day, warm with the promise of spring but with a breeze cool enough to remind us it is still technically winter.

 

There was a bit of tension for me before the service. Greg, my brother in law, asked me a few days earlier if I could be a back up to sing at the funeral. Jim, the guy who was supposed to sing was also supposed to have surgery and may not be well enough to sing on Sunday.  I said sure, why not. Greg said that Grace, one of Emily’s relatives would be in touch with me. But I never heard anything from Grace so we went to the funeral  on the assumption that Jim was well enough to sing.

 

Jim was not well enough to sing.

 

Uh oh.

 

I have a couple of songs that I can go to fairly quickly. “Amazing Grace” is always a good go-to for a funeral. But was I in fact needed or not? Grace never said anything to me. Greg didn’t know anything.

 

So the service began. The minister got to the part where Jim was supposed to sing and he said that Jim was not able to be there but there was someone else who would be filling in?

 

Oh great. The minister isn’t sure?

 

There’s a moment of awkward silence and I wonder if there’s been some misunderstanding and Grace just assumed I would be singing. Am I supposed to stand up now and stride up the mike? “Amazing Grace” away?

 

Then a woman approached the pulpit and said she would be singing. She had a backing track and stuff and sang the song Jim was going to sing.

 

Yes, this was planned. I should be pissed that I was not in the loop and left hanging. On the other hand, I was relieved to be off the hook and she did a pretty good job. Better ‘n me. 

 

The minister did a good job too. He successfully evoked the joy and the love that everyone felt in Emily’s presence. Emily’s life was not without its sorrows and tragedies. But for all her losses, she made sure to let people in her presence know who much she loved them and treasured them.

 

Funerals are a time of sadness for the life that is no longer among us. But we can also find the joy of remembering the time that we shared in this life and the hope that something better awaits us beyond this life.