Joyful Reunion at a (double) funeral!

By Rhiannonw

Tue, 11 Feb 2025
  • 182 reads
8 comments
 

A double funeral
– not a result of car accident,
just two friends (therefore elderly!)
both hospitalised briefly through different ill health issues
come to the end of their lives
a few days apart – just a few ward rooms apart, I think.
(He was relieved and felt at ease to go
once he knew she had died)

Two coffins, one event
– no two long journeys, to attend!
Sad, yes,
but contentment in shared past joyful fellowship and hope,
and knowledge of where they are now,
released and safe and blessed.
– And, also so much joy in the meeting with
so many friends of past years.
Some not seen for 3 years or so,
some not seen for 20, or 40 years… ?
Recognising faces that have morphed
like a red-headed 18 year-old
now in his 50s with sleek grey hair cap
concentrate on the face – yes – connection,
recognition!
Delight in picking up fellowship though
our ways have been preserved
in such different places, for so long!

[IP:Reunion]

 

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Comments

Submitted by jolono on

Ive been to too many funerals lately, heh, but thats just a sign of getting older. Great lines in this. My favoutite was.

Recognising faces that have morphed
like a red-headed 18 year-old

now in his 50s with sleek grey hair cap

Really good imagery

 

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you. Death is always sad, but sometimes there is this contentment, and here we had the added joy of so many reunions, some puzzling to associate with remembered features of years ago, and I know our friends who had died, passed on, would have been delighted to have been the cause of the reunions! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Schubert on

I always felt that funerals should not be solemn occasions, but more joyful expressions of a life lived. I atteded one recently where we were all instructed to wear brightly coloured outfits and be cheerful, It was quite a revelation and not a long face in sight.

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I think it is unhelpful though to trivialise the real sorrow and loss experienced by friends and relatives. The Bible says that we 'do not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope'* and so we grieve for the loss, and because death is 'unnatural' (!) but yes, there is joy at memories and what the person achieved and meant to us in love, and if united in the faith of the gospel, there is the assurance of the better life reached. Rhiannon

* 1 Thessalonians 4:13

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I couldn't think, reading your title, how you could make a funeral joyful, but you HAVE, the sense of individuals in fellowship, support and community thriving is so strong. Different from the one I went to recently

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Yes, it was very special. Thank you. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by D G Moody on

I lked your poem Rhiannon; especially as my wife and I attended a funeral in our village for a lady who had given so much of her life to the village and our church. I feel these occasions are rightly a 'right of passage' and are so very important to those left behind. The one we had was such as this, and I felt we were all enriched by it.

Dougie Moody

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Good. That's as it should be, and glory to God for what He's done in the life, and His gospel. And help to those who come and don't yet know Him! Rhiannon