August 6, 2009

In the past I’ve done slideshow presentations for funerals and there always has to be a quick turn around, but this project was more of time crunch than any of my previous projects. We didn’t leave the funeral home with the photo album of my Aunt Jean until nearly ten and it was midnight before we got home.
My Mom helped me to select and scan in the pictures and we made a good team. After I was done editing we tried to preview the video before I burned, but we kept on dozing off in the middle of it. It was half-past four before I clicked “Burn” and went to bed.
We got at the funeral home at about 9AM and started to work. The funeral home didn’t have their own video equipment so we brought our own projector and speakers.
The video presentation played without a hitch!
Throughout the day I absent mindedly started searching for my Aunt Jean at the funeral home. It was odd that she wasn't going around and comforting every body.
The funeral home wasn’t big enough for all of the visitors and there were people standing in the back hallway. It was quite a funeral possession. We had three police escorts who blocked traffic at the intersections and kept back the incoming traffic on the entry ramps to the interstate. In fact, when a vehicle that wasn’t part of the procession would cut in one of the escorts would pull alongside and yell through a mega phone to “Get over!” One time, while the hertz was changing lanes an escort stopped in the middle of the lane we were currently in order to let us over. The procession was so large that we should have twice as many escorts.
It is amazing that the tradition of respect for the dead is still held in reverence and that it is protected by law enforcement. There is always a large contrast between funeral possessions in the city and in the country. In the city cars are constantly cutting in and being obnoxious. However, in the country cars will pull over unto the shoulder and quietly wait. Actually, one time a man pulled over his truck got outside and took off his hat and put it to his heart!
On arriving at Shepherd Hills Cemetary there was a short service and everyone was dismissed. There are so many familiar names on the gravestones. My mother’s family seems to have a lot of deaths, but most of them are of young people that are killed tragically.
Our house isn’t too far away from the cemetery so we had all of my aunts and uncles over. It was great for all of the siblings to be together.