By VICKI BROWN
I completely understand that funerals are no laughing matter…usually. For the families left behind, there is tremendous grief and sadness. But sometimes, for the visiting friend or acquaintance who is there to support the family, there is a lot more going on, and the worst part is not being able to chuckle out loud about it.
Case in point: my great grandfather’s funeral.
He had just passed away, and at the same time, his son-in-law, my grandfather, was in the hospital with serious health problems. We tried to talk him into staying in the hospital, but he was stubborn and insisted on signing himself out to attend the funeral of Papa Eller.
His passing was a sad event for us, and we assumed that his funeral would be a terribly sad affair as well. I had prepared myself to cry…but not to laugh!
Now, I have said before that it was never a good idea to let my middle sister and me sit together or even be near each other during a solemn occasion. But on this day, no one was paying attention, so we stood on the porch of the chapel together watching the people arrive to say goodbye to Papa Eller.
That’s when it started.
My grandfather, who in his condition had no business being at the funeral to start with, was…well, hilarious. My father had tried to dress him as best as he could, but my grandfather outweighed him by at least 50 pounds and was so drugged up that everything was askew. My sister commented that he looked like he had been on an alcohol binge, and I just couldn’t keep a straight face. My poor dad was trying to help him up the stairs and keep him from falling as he staggered around. I tried desperately not to laugh, and the fact that we were at a funeral made the entire situation worse. It didn’t help that part of his shirt was sticking out above the fly on his pants.
Turning away, I did everything I could to stifle laughter, but my evil sister just continued to make comments. Before I knew what hit me, I burst out into laughter, which set my sister off. There were the two of us howling with laughter on the front porch with my father glaring at us.
But that wasn’t the only occasion that laughter got the best of me at a funeral of all places.
At a church where my husband pastored, a lady, who was known for her dramatic behavior, lost her mother. At the funeral, she decided to fall to her knees with grief. Now, this was the same lady who rarely visited or called her mother. Anyway, her escort at the funeral was her brother. While she weighed in at about 200 pounds, he weighed in at about 110.
At that moment, she dropped, and her brother, trying desperately to catch her, ended up with nothing but her dress. Down to floor she went displaying her pantyhose, slip, and rather large underwear. Try to keep a straight face at a time like that!
At a recent funeral, we were driving in the procession headed to the cemetery. Unfortunately, we had no assistance from law enforcement, and things got a little tricky when lights turned red at intersections. The lady at the head of the procession was extra cautious, so she would slow down at the red lights and then move on through the intersection when other drivers noticed our flashing lights and the hearse in the lead.
But on this occasion, a man pulled up to the intersection, saw an opportunity to quickly move into traffic, and pulled out…right into our funeral procession. When he figured out what was happening, he started swerving, desperately trying to move out of our procession. Miles later, he managed to move into another lane, and as we passed him by, he shaded his face with his hand, totally embarrassed.
Then there was the time my dad bought a brand new car. Days later he attended a family funeral. While in the funeral procession, he took his eyes off the road for a minute and ended up crashing into the back of his sister’s vehicle. He totaled his car.
At the funeral of my grandmother, who had been notoriously cranky for as long as my sister and I had known her, one relative was at the podium expounding on how sweet and wonderful she had been. That’s when my baby sister leaned forward and asked, “Who are they talking about?” That set the whole row of family members laughing uproariously.
I am sure that some of you also have some funeral stories, too. While this can be such a sad time for us, it can also be somewhat humorous. Maybe that is why God created humor. We need it at times like this. And for those in grief, know that people love you and are thinking of you.
