I do ok, but I don't like to cry in public. Some of the funeral songs get to me.
The last one I went to was a young boy who was friends with my two older kids. He was maybe 21 and in the army reserve. He was killed in a car wreck. He was the nicest boy too, and it's a shame what happened to him. All of us went except my oldest daughter because she can't handle funerals. I offered to stay home but she didn't want anybody here with her.
I did ok up until they played "How Great Thou Art" and then I started getting teary eyed. Then they had a sermon. I was expecting a Catholic funeral since the boy was Mexican but it was Fundamentalist Protestant and the preacher had an altar call. I think altar calls at funerals are self serving and tacky. I disapproved of the altar call and so I wasn't teary eyed anymore. Until they folded the flag on the casket and gave it to his mother and played taps. Then we all cried. Wasn't a dry eye in the house.
It was closed casket so there was none of the walking by and having to kiss the body before they close the casket. That always creeps me out. I want to wipe my mouth after but it would be just too rude to so I just look sad and try to remember not to lick my lips until I've had a chance to go to the bathroom.
The worst funerals though are the ones where you go to the viewing at somebody's house. I hate those. I never know what to do and I'm always uncomfortable because I'm in somebody else's house who I may or may not know well and it's a very sad time for them and I always feel like I'm intruding, even though I know I'm not. Another bad thing about those wakes at home is all the mirrors, even the ones in the bathrooms are covered. It's not just a piece of cloth thrown over it either. It's tacked down so it doesn't fall off. If I've cried, there is no way to check my makeup because my black dress purse is too small to carry anything in and I don't have a compact and it's a private bathroom in somebodys house so theres not gonna be somebody else in there with me so I can ask to use hers.
As uncomfortable as funerals are, I think it's worse to not have one. My husbands brother's wife died a few years ago, suddenly. Their son was about 15 at the time. They took her from home in an ambulance to the hospital and she died there. My BIL went to the hospital but left his son home because he was trying to protect him I guess. Either way, the last time that boy saw his mother was when the ambulance took her out of the house on a stretcher with oxygen on. She wasn't quite dead yet then, but close. So, he called the undertaker and they talked and he had them come pick her up from the hospital, cremate her and then FedEx him the ashes in a little box about a month later. No memorial service, no funeral, no nothing. I didn't like her at all but I hope she haunts him until the day he dies for that. She actually may have been because he had to have her cat put down shortly after that. He turned mean and was totally out of control after my BIL decided to just cremate her and do nothing else servicewise. Oddly enough it was only to my BIL that he was mean to. He'd scratch him out of the blue or bite him, peed in his shoes and on his bed, pooped on his bed, etc. Only him and only after he said no to a funeral or anything. Maybe she was haunting him, who knows. He hasn't been able to get a date since she died, so maybe she's given him bad luck or something. I hope so.
Again, I'm rambeling. Too much caffiene today and a hormonal imbalance will cause that.
That's my take on funerals, anyway.
And haunting via cat.
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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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