Just curious if anyone might have a story to share regarding having attended the funeral of someone lying in a casket that met his/her death and that most everybody attending the procession pretty much knew was a massive piece of sewage while they, the dead one, were in the flesh?
These days I pretty much am about as much of a lone wolf as anyone can get, thus there’s not much chance of me attending anyone’s funeral save for my own. But when I was growing up, I knew PLENTY of people that were just really rotten, disgusting people.
I moved away from all those folks (and many fine ones, too) many years ago, thus I don’t know if they’re still among the living. But IF I were to go to the funeral of one of them, I think I know myself well enough that I’d most likely be smiling a wide, disrespectful grin and with much glee in my eyes when it was my turn to view the trash – oops! – I mean deceased. (And I won’t comment on what I “might” do at said person’s grave when others weren’t around.:eek:)
Basically, it doesn’t bother me in the least when I learn that a truly crummy person has met their end, in fact the sooner the better. Yet, I do wonder how those preachers manage to come up with some “loving” words when giving their eulogies … and, too, how regular folks deal with being stuck in such a ridiculous situation due to social convections (?) requiring them to pay their respects for someone they know full-well gave little respect towards others when they were living their lives?
Any fun or enlightening comments concerning the matter, People?:rolleyes:
I’ve seen a few obituaries of people that I knew were not well-liked, and the online guestbooks either had few or no signatures, or the “condolences” said things like “Now you can live out your lives in safety and freedom” or something similar.
I wonder what kinds of things the screeners have had to censor over the years. :dubious:
My junior high’s Facebook page has a list of “People Who Left Us Too Soon”, and there was a girl I went to school with who was a vile, despicable bully who was a thoroughly ugly person both inside and out; this said she died in the 1990s. The deafening silence at this news spoke volumes.
I also remember a woman who died under suspicious circumstances in my old town, and it was one of those things where people were hoping that her husband had killed her (hope you folks understand where I’m coming from with this) because he needed to be off the streets, period. Usually, when a person dies suddenly, especially if it’s a woman, people will come out of the woodwork to say kind, glowing things about them, but that didn’t happen here. Apparently, she wasn’t any better than he was. BTW, the ME ruled that she died of an accidental drug overdose, not homicide.
I attended a funeral like this. Before the service, a group of us stood outside the funeral home talking about what an asshole the deceased had been. It was clear that the pastor who did the sermon had never met the man. The pastor attempted to do a sermon in the ‘call and response’ style. He’d make a generic compliment about how great So and so was, then wait for everyone to say ‘Amen’ and be met with silence. I was curious to see if anyone could come up with some nice memories to share and I was surprised that a couple of people did by putting a positive spin on some bad traits and making him sound like a lovable curmudgeon.
About 15 years ago, a teenage boy from my area who had lettered in 4 sports committed suicide, and reporters from the local TV stations went to the school to do live interviews of the “grief stricken student body” and cut back to the station when the kids they approached said things like “I feel bad for his parents, but I’m not sorry he’s gone” and “We’re not going to his funeral. We’re going out for pizza instead”. :eek: I don’t know how many people actually ended up going, from the school or anywhere else.
It was a small town, and the high school was completely dismissed for his funeral, which really pissed off the family of the last student to die there, a girl who had succumbed to cancer a few years earlier, and had NOT lettered in 4 sports. They were allowed excused absences, but no, school wasn’t let out for this.
I worked with a woman who lived in that town, and she didn’t know the boy or his family, but she knew people who did, and his athletic prowess was the only thing he had going for him, and probably the only reason he was allowed to stay in school; people who knew him said almost to a person that the world was a better place without him.
I went to a funeral about 4 years ago for a friend of the families brother. I’d only met him a couple of times but I could tell he was scum. Only at the funeral I realized just how much scum he was and how hard his family had tried over the years to fix him.
He basically let drugs and alcohol get a hold of him. Over the years he had 2 wives and 3 kids, some didnt even know the other. At his funeral his sister admitted at age 50 he had only earned about $55k in his life. He got by by stealing from his mother.
Sadly his kids at the funeral, asked for any inheritance and were told no, he had squandered it all but they were welcome to anything in his house (it was all junk).
It was hard for the minister to find anything nice to say about him. I felt sorry for his sons never having a real Dad.
I did not attend the funeral, but one of my former bosses was so well loved that I wished I has the concession to sell small mirrors in the parking lot.
Stakes and hammers would have been profitable too.
A woman I had once been close friends with seems to have burned all her bridges over the years. There was only an online notice from the mortuary about her death with no details about a funeral or memorial service, no signers to the registry, no newspaper death notice, nothing. The only other reference I could find at all to her death was a note in her daughter’s synagogue newsletter.
I wonder if that’s a fairly common thing even though a person might not have been a bad person, but that folks are just so caught up in their own lives that they don’t notice for a while that a person is no longer around.
Wow, sounds like a tearless funeral. My own belief about a lot of screwed up kids, not all, is that they didn’t have parents that made an honest effort to properly raise them, just treated 'em like they were furniture that was always in the way … and let the TV do the job they should’ve done.
I’m always overcome with a sense of great joy whenever I hear of two scumbags crossing paths and then they do their thing and both end up taking the south bound out of this world, it’s like good riddance to bad rubbish!
That’s a good question. Several years ago a dude that was my foster father died of old age and I was somewhat surprised that in the online obituary there were only a couple of comments saying good things about him. He lived in that area his whole life and so it seemed odd … though for myself I couldn’t stomach saying anything good about him due to him and his wife putting on a big Christian act for the world while using me as their verbal punching bag behind the scenes. I say keep things honest and follow the example of those mentioned on this thread that refused to pretend that scum is something other than scum (though I’ll admit it does sound harsh).
It’s always a blessing whenever the devils (or vampires) among us leave this world and go to another plane of existence that’s more suited to their mean nature.
Sometimes the parents are actually on top of the kids but in a bad way, completely dominating their children’s lifes, or spending so much time harping on how they are So So Wonderful, or focusing on one single thing to the detriment of everything else. In some of the cases I know, the children managed to fix themselves after bouts with drugs, having a child of unknown (and best if he stays that way) father…
When the mother of one of my former classmates died, the daughter didn’t attend the funeral. Someone asked the son about his sister missing the funeral and he replied “why should she (attend)?”
The deceased’s most famous “virtue” was her artistry, but one of the ways in which she’d manifested it was in treating her daughter as a living doll until a more-interesting (read: male) child came along. The sermon, by a priest who knew the family, mentioned that she’d been a painter and sculptor but that was all, it must have been one of the blandest sermons in the history of funerals.
None of them is dead yet, but the daughters of one of my former teachers are all stranged from her and her husband. Someone once asked one of the daughters “what, as in, won’t even go to their funerals?” “no, as in, will go to the cementery to make sure they’re burned all the way through.”
Their mother’s former students are willing to bring wood if the cremation oven isn’t working. The forest around the cementery is pine, it burns well.
When she was found dead, they actually cancelled school the next day because of threats the father had made against school employees, and they were afraid of what else he might do. I knew about this because I worked with a woman who also worked at that school. I have no idea if the husband is still walking around “free”, or if he’s done something else in the meantime. Chances are, the kid’s incarcerated too.
My children’s paternal grandmother’s funeral shall be interesting. Her siblings, her sons, her nieces and nephews… they all talk incessantly about how glad they’ll be when she’s finally gone. In my head, her funeral will be filled with the silence that comes from a dozen people grappling with their embarrassment at feeling so relieved by her death. I’ve already decided that, if I have to speak*, I’ll talk about how immaculate her house was and what a great housekeeper she was. I can’t honestly think of anything else nice to say.
Not that I will. I’m busy that day and will unfortunately be unable to attend.
