Celebration of Life Events - Covid Times

This doesn’t work in our case since she has a crypt in a mausoleum with my dad and her name and birth/death dates were already done for her service on Wednesday.

But can see it being an option for others.

I fully admit that funeral homes, cemeteries and the like are so sad and depressing. I understand they are often part of the death process - but really, any options outside of those settings when possible , I’m in favor of.

For my father we had the celebration of life several months after he passed away and had it on the deck of my parents house. People told stories we sang a few songs, the family all wore Hawaiian shirts because he loved them. We had tea and sandwiches and cake.

My mother’s took place in the large living room of my brother’s house, at that point she’d been living with them for a few years. My SIL told the story that my mother apparently told her she would haunt them forever if they had an Episcopal service for her. (They are very active in their church.) We all got a good laugh about that. My mother knew and loved all their church friends, just not church itself!

For both occasions we pulled pictures from albums.

For my in-laws my MIL’s was at the Quaker school where she’d been a librarian, and was done very much Quaker style. For FIL we had it at his synagogue. He’d gotten more active there in his last years of life once MIL’s dementia put an end to her church attending. We had a slide show on a laptop, but I’m not sure who actually watched it.

Just speaking for myself, I won’t attend indoor events unless everyone is masked and separated. I went to one a month or two ago, and we didn’t stay for the meal. I’d have attended that one via Zoom if it had been an option.

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Just came back from attending a celebration of life. Everyone was masked—a few had noses peeping but they pulled mask back over (at this point people really should have masks that actually fit).

The two surviving brothers made remarks and reminisces of their late sister and the eldest niece also made remarks. There was a brief ceremony at the mortuary and again at graveside. They handed everyone an individual container of dim sum as folks left the mortuary. At graveside, as folks left, they gave everyone
a$ 25 a gift card for a popular local Denny’s type restaurant.

(Normally, the family would have invited everyone to a restaurant after the graveside ceremony for a meal and fellowship.)