Just came back from the funeral of a friend of a friend.  It seems that the old guy died after a protracted battle with an undisclosed illness.  Said guy wanted a Christian funeral as one of his last wishes, and relatives obliged.

I happened to be there to fill up the empty seats, and to provide some vocals for the funeral songs.

There were three eulogies, one by a teary eyed daughter and the other two by his young grandsons.

Mr Fong certainly is something.

When the speeches were finished and the songs were sung, people left.  The closer relatives stayed behind and played mahjong.

I went up to the glass covered coffin, not entirely certain as to why people paid so little attention to it.

The casket was stately and solid looking.  The lid was opened halfway, and there was a bunch of white flowers placed atop the slightly fogged up glass.

At first I thought they left the thing empty aside from a small bundle of neatly wrapped white cloth, until I found out that the head was left uncovered at the other end of the coffin and realized that whatever he had died of shrank and thinned him up before stopping his heart.  He looked nothing like what was portrayed on his funeral portrait.

But I'm truly fascinated by how peaceful he looked.  With nary a grimace and wrinkles smoothed out after all the lights inside go out he's a perfect picture of serenity.  However much that I might contradict myself with the real facts, I think that death from this point of view looked pretty painless and uneventful, probably no more different from going off to a sleep you don't get to wake up from.

It's simply beautiful.

Labels: funeral