Funerals

I don't like funerals. I know they are part and parcel of life, I do attend them out of respect to the dead and courtesy to the living but I don't like them.

I have had thoughts over the last few monthS that there will be more of them, more familiar older people passing as time and age gets on. It is a natural rite of life, as leaves wilt and flowers fade and and yet we have to mourn and grieve. But for the old who have lived and can do little more I can't really mourn as think of their relief as release and a moving on.
Harder of course when death comes unexpected especially to the young.
Funerals force you to deal with loss up close and personal. The 'missing' is more prominent than the life they filled.

It's easier from experience, if that someone was far away in another country, their memory lives on more than the fact that they are gone. No delusions, just that distance keeps the living memories closer.