<p>I always attend the viewing if I know the family members, even if I did not know the deceased. I will attend the funeral if I was close to the family members, or if I was close to the deceased.</p>
<p>I have attended a couple viewings for the deceased when I did not know the family members well. It was a bit strange. Now I don’t go if I don’t know the family well unless there will be others I know who will be there. I would be more apt to quietly slip into the funeral rather than attend the viewing if I was close to the deceased but didn’t know the family.</p>
<p>Having recently lost my son, it means a lot for people to pay their respects. After our first calling hours, our funeral director was in disbelief at the number of people that came through. He had never seen anything like it in his experience. Also a large number of people, including young college age kids wrote emails and cards that brought (happy) tears to my eyes.
I agree with the poster on the previous page. Please DO NOT stop by the house, unless you have been invited or know the family VERY well. We were exhausted, very busy and emotionally drained and we ended up entertaining others, which was not what we needed to be doing at that time.</p>