<p>This is more awful; not funny at all.</p>
<p>At the wake of a young child, the religious officiant offering prayers claimed that the boy’s disease was caused by the evil in the world (specifically Saddam Hussein’s) and declared that the boy’s spirit was now in the foxholes comforting the soldiers.</p>
<p>I pray that this did give comfort to the parents, but it sure sounded appalling to me.</p>
<p>Thanks for this thread, it makes me laugh to recall things. My best friend years back was a Catholic priest and I am the one that did something embarrassing at his funeral. Although I had left the church years before, he was my bff and even used to have confession with him in my kitchen.</p>
<p>Anyways, he died at 44 years old from complications of his being overweight. He always joked about his weight, making comments about being a priest and wearing black being slimming, as well as women were lucky to wear dresses and his cassock was so comfortable. At his viewing at the funeral home I went up to the open casket. Nobody else was there so I proceeded to talk to him as if we were having a conversation. Anyways, I concluded our “talk” by telling him he was looking “quite svelte” (imagine me saying it in a very uppity voice) in his black suit. I turned around and there were a dozen people looking at me horrified.</p>
<p>Whatever, it was very cathartic and I smile now thinking about it. :)</p>
<p>I still cringe and feel so badly for the person who said this, with the best of intentions, but did not know the circumstances of the deaths. This was at the visitation for a couple whe were both deceased. Little had been said as to what happened, so it was reasonable to assume something tragic like an auto accident. One well meaning person went up to the adult daughter to pay her respects, talking about what a lovely couple they were and how they loved each other so much, etc etc. The daughter was very polite and didn’t say anything but “thank you”. Later the well meaning wellwisher ( a professional colleage of one of the parents) was advised that the deaths were (stop reading here if you are easily upset…) a murder -suicide.</p>
<p>My parents were very age conscious. My father never told his age but he didn’t lie about it. My mother…not so much a word. And she was of the generation that you could, for example just tell the DMV an age and they were ok with it. So when she was sick my mother made me swear that I would never reveal her age…in a speech OR anywhere else. She threaten me with her returning from the grave.</p>
<p>So a year later we were doing a double unveiling since my father died 13 weeks after my mother. I was looking around at all the other families in the area and I realized that they knew maybe 3/4ths of them. I was doing that because I really didn’t want to start sobbing.</p>
<p>Mr. Ellebud took care of the headstones wording. As my father’s was opened first I saw it and focused on it…nice…we’re good. Then my mother’s headstone was revealed…nice wording…but no date of birth given…I burst out laughing. My husband did a great job.</p>
<p>VaBluebird, found one of the online stories you described…I didn’t know someone did actually get stuffed. The dead guy in the story is definitely not my dad…my dad wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a Yankees hat–my dad is a Tampa Bay Rays baseball fan!</p>
<p>[Dead</a> man stands throughout 3-day wake - World news - Weird news | NBC News](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26290833/ns/world_news-weird_news/t/dead-man-stands-throughout--day-wake/]Dead”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26290833/ns/world_news-weird_news/t/dead-man-stands-throughout--day-wake/)</p>
<p>A distant cousin of mine passed away–he had an artificial limb because of complications from diabetes. I didn’t go to the funeral, but my brother did. When I asked him about the funeral, he started laughing. Told me that just before the undertaker was going to close the coffin, the cousin’s wife jumped up and ran over to the casket and grabbed the artificial limb. Apparently, she told the undertaker that she might as well try to sell it on ebay and get some money for it.</p>
<p>At the funeral for a man who had young children, there were hundreds of people waiting in line to give their sympathy to his widow. During the visitation his young nephews were running around like wild indians and eventually pulled the fire alarm. The poor funeral home staff looked quite stressed and worn out by the end of the night.</p>
<p>Where I came from, very little was done to prepare the body for the viewing - they were sometimes kept on ice for the family to assemble, and cremated shortly thereafter, mostly within 24 hours. I was shocked when I went to Western funerals where the body had so much make up that it wasn’t unusual for the people to look a whole lot better in death than during their last days. The first time, I thought I was in the wrong viewing because I didn’t recognize the face of a young coworker who had committed suicide because of the way they had done his face.</p>
<p>Thats a riot about the “no date of birth” on a tombstone/footstone. LOL!!</p>
<p>My mother’s family has a a family plot. When my aunt died and they went to open the plot for her (though she had been cremated, they were going to bury the cremains in the plot) they found s that someone else had been buried in the plot!!! My cousi8n wanted to know if they could charge rent.</p>
<p>That dead guy standing link, complete with photo, is seriously creepy. But nice twist , lizard. Tampa bay fan… cute.</p>
<p>One well meaning person went up to the adult daughter to pay her respects, talking about what a lovely couple they were and how they loved each other so much, etc etc. The daughter was very polite and didn’t say anything but “thank you”. Later the well meaning wellwisher ( a professional colleage of one of the parents) was advised that the deaths were (stop reading here if you are easily upset…) a murder -suicide.</p>
<p>How awful 
The grieving process must be soooo much worse in a case like this. </p>
<p>Hmmm…Frankly, I think if I had been that D, I wouldn’t have had the funeral for the murderer, just one for the victim. I think I would have just had the murderer-parent’s remains cremated and disposed of with the absolute least fanfare/expense/attention. </p>
<p>(As an aside: I wonder how this was kept out of the news. One-person suicides aren’t newsworthy and cause of death can certainly be kept private. However, murder/suicides are not private since there’s always a police investigation to make sure that it really wasn’t a double murder…)</p>
<p>My H went to the funeral of a co-worker who died so suddenly and youngish, that my H thought it was a suicide. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything to anyone because he later found out that the death was from a heart attack.)</p>
<p>GAmom… Did I know that priest?? Was he in the north OC area?</p>
<p>It wasn’t kept out of the news. But, IIRC it didnt really hit the news until after the funeral, and the incident occurred at their second home that was not in the metro area, so it wasn’t in the local metro paper.</p>
<p>Last year , an older gentleman who helped us out with our business a couple of days a week ( kind of to keep him from being too bored ) passed away. A group of us attended his funeral and when we were driving there , we realized we had never seen him dressed in anything but his usual bright colored OP wide wale corduroy shorts , equally bright colored polo type shorts and baseball hat…and always super tan</p>
<p>Whenever he was done working , he would say " well , I think I’m going to go home now and have a can of budweiser and a nap "</p>
<p>We were actually pleased to see that he was buried in his favorite garb , and with that one can of budweiser.
Not a weird or shocking funeral story , but it made us all get a kick out of an otherwise somber situation</p>
<p>When my dad died, we kids were 17, 14, and 12 (I was the middle one.) The first afternoon, we sat stone-faced and composed in front, getting up to do all the awful meet and greet. By the last viewing (that’s back when four was common) we were sitting in the back of the room, playing cards (the game “Oh, hell” I believe) with our cousins. Couldn’t take the ceremonial sadness and pomp. Mom was fine with that; she knew we were grieving. I"m sure others were shocked.</p>
<p>An actual fight- screaming and yelling in the parking lot, about the the order in the funeral procession to the grave site. Among the children.</p>
<p>Oh, and I grew up where we had the funeral day 3, unless it was a Sunday. What is with all of these funerals that take place 5-7 days after someone has died? Very confusing!</p>
<p>And count me in on not wanting a “viewing”. I do not want people staring at me now, much less when I am dead.</p>
<p>ellebud, I had the same threat from my mother. 
Her headstone gives her date of death. No D.O.B.</p>
<p>My brother who died unexpectedly this summer has spent 20+ years in the air force and wanted to be buried with full military honors. However, when he retired about 5 years ago, he told his oldest daughter that he would never put a uniform on again. She took him at his word and had him dressed in a Steeler shirt. S and I got to the funeral home first and were standing outside talking to the funeral director when my brother’s black and gold jeep pulled into the parking lot followed by several other cars. Out of the vehicles come my nieces, nephew, their partners, my 3 great-nieces, and my ex-sister-in-law---------all dressed in Steeler team jerseys. Although unconventional, several people commented that it helped identify his family since many of the local people did not know them as they had been away so long. Brother and 3 of his 4 kids lived out of state after his military retirement but they were all avid Pittsburgh sports fans.</p>
<p>My mother died suddenly/unexpectedly. We were in shock.</p>
<p>After her funeral, when all the family and friends came by mother’s house to visit, my obnoxiously crass, abrasive cousin (whom we had not see in years)piped up and said wanted she my Mom’s sewing machine and wanted to take it that day! </p>
<p>She was not close to my mother nor to my knowledge did she sew…she’s a large woman who mostly wears mens clothing. Beats me.</p>
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<p>My grandfather studied art in college and ultimately had a long and varied career that involved marketing and magazine production.</p>
<p>His first job out of college, though? He did that makeup. Apparently they look for artists for that and it’s considered more art than cosmetology. At least it was in the 40’s.</p>
<p>Oh, and I grew up where we had the funeral day 3, unless it was a Sunday. What is with all of these funerals that take place 5-7 days after someone has died? Very confusing!</p>
<p>I think it’s just become more complicated to get the funeral arrangements/flowers/music selections/readings/eulogies written, etc done and also getting the out of town relatives there. </p>
<p>Maybe in the past, travel was so expensive/difficult that many OOS relatives didn’t attend??? I think employers are more willing to let people have time off to go to funerals these days. </p>
<p>My mom died on a Tuesday morning and her funeral was on Saturday. That was best for those who had to travel to attend. We had just enough time to get everything in order, and we felt we were “pros” at that point since dad had died the year before. </p>
<p>My dad died on a Wednesday and we had his funeral on Saturday (again to accomodate travelers), but we felt that we were very rushed.</p>
<p>One of my best friends had an unusual thing happen at her mom’s funeral. Her mom had 3 daughters and 3 expensive mink coats of similar value. Naturally, my friend assumed that each D would get one of the coats. </p>
<p>At the funeral, a friend of one of the sisters announced that the youngest sister had promised one of the fur coats to her. Of course, that would be fine if that meant that the sister wasn’t expecting one for herself. Wrong. The sister still expected a coat for herself AND her friend. Her excuse was that she didn’t think any of the furs colors were “right” for my friend’s hair/eye coloring. Thankfully, the eldest brother (the executor) told the sister that either she give her coat to her friend, or the friend wouldn’t be getting a fur coat. </p>
<p>People can get very weird about “taking things” or assuming that certain things should be theirs when someone dies.</p>