Morbid Thoughts : Family

When I first started to think about this post, I was sitting through a wake and there were all sorts of thoughts running through my head. I can't believe that my brain still works faster than I can type. I wonder how the legendary writers from before the typewriter days did their writing! Maybe that's why my teachers always told me to write in point form first, it will help with the composition later. I've never been one to listen during class, so if my writing sounds haphazard, that's just the way my brain works.

Anyways, onwards with the blog.

I guess I'll start with Family. Death is part and parcel of life. You can't escape it, even if you're a vampire. The time you spend living is gazillion times longer than dying. Some might even say that the moment you are conceived, you're counting down the days to your death. Morbid.

Death comes painful to some, a relief to some. Sometimes death hurts the family more than the person experiencing the death itself. The bigger the family, the more pain is felt. I won't want to be the last one standing. Maybe that's one of the reasons I'm keeping my family small.

Planning a funeral brings people together. I've been lucky to have been privy to a few different kinds of funerals, both Western and Eastern. For the Easterners, a wake is held for relatives and friends to bid the deceased a final good-bye, safe journey and hopefully onward to a better life. Relatives and friends whom you haven't seen in the longest time turn up for the wake, food and drinks are served and like weddings, a great way for the living to catch up well into the night.

The funeral itself, being a somber event, is something akin to a send off at the airport. Prayers are said, words are said, tears are shed, thoughts are sent and these days, the entire coffin is loaded into the incinerator.

Time moves again for the family, the event is over. Belongings are packed, kept, thrown and in time, forgotten. Someone's left the house... till we meet again.