In the End

david hobbs · In the End

If you could lay in your coffin and hear what those you knew said about you what would you like to hear?

What do you think you would hear?

evergreen

For me I'd think I'd just be glad someone came... I've always felt that my funeral would be just immediate family not sure why .

I'd like to think they would be saying I'm glad I knew her :)

david hobbs

I would like them to say.

I can't believe my ears.

The things you find out about a person when they die!

beantighe

Well for a start, it wouldn't be me in that coffin, just my cast-off body. I'd be somewhere above them, in a weightless state, observing who was there and what they said. Like Evergreen, I think it would be just immediate family, including my in-laws, because apart from my daughters, they've been more of a family to me than my own family.

Not being big-headed or anything, but I don't honestly think I'd hear anything bad, because they've all been nice to me while I was alive - well, speaking for my daughters, most of the time, anyway. I can't think of any reason why anyone would say anything bad. They'd probably reminisce and remember things I did or said that either made them laugh or drove them up the wall - I'm sure there are stories that they could dine out on for years. I'd like to be remembered with a chuckle. I'd like the kids especially to remember how I cooked for them and made their clothes when they were little. They still remember my roast dinners!

It would be wonderful to still be remembered with affection 50 years after my death, the way I do my grandad.

Waffle King

I'd personally love to hear "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen playing in the background and everyone there to be singing it in good spirits

beantighe

I like that, Waff!

I've always had this idea of my own funeral: I'll have a funeral pyre right on top of a large hill. There's a path winding down to the bottom, where it ends with a five-barred gate, on which is the notice: Frying tonight!!

Then, I'd like there to be one huge party and a ceilidh band with loads of beer, mead and cider and for everyone to have a great time celebrating my life -cos I'll be there in spirit to watch!

david hobbs

I will be burying my mum in law next Friday.

She was lovely and I shall tell her so. I hat to admit it but I miss her more than my own mother.

I was with her and saw her passing but I left the room one minute before.

I have been with others on their passing but I wanted to remember her alive and not as the empty shell we become on the insant of death.

meiah

Never having seen my Mum or Dad when they had died, I can understnad that. They are alive in my memory.

What would I like to hear in my coffin? The worms cheering, and the people above sniggering at a really badly timed, but very funny joke (and believe me....I know my friends and family....it probably will happen!!)

Life goes on, and far better that it does so with laughter.

beantighe

Oh David, I'm so sorry to hear that. Rest assured she will hear you. You're far more psychically tuned-in than I am, so I'm sure she'll find a way to let you know she's OK.

I have a theory that loved ones are never gone so long as they live on in our memory. I'm the last one left now who remembers my grandad. He has great-nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews, but I'm the only one left who knew him personally, and I feel it's a great honour to be the one to keep his memory alive.

50 years on, and I can still 'see' him sitting on his end of the sofa in our kitchen, on a pile of chair cushions to accommodate his long legs, with his Lloyd George cap, his collarless shirt open at the neck, his tweedy jacket, and his corduroy trousers tucked into shiny leather buckled gaiters over sturdy boots, twirling his handlebar moustache. He was always whittling wood, and made his own walking sticks, a fly-swat for mother which she used for years, and he made me a hoop and stick and a whipping top when I was little. Once, he brought home a grass snake, draped over his arm, for me to see. He set it down on the lawn, and we watched as it wriggled into the hedge and disappeared. He was such an eccentric old man, and I still love to tell the tales and chuckle about the funny things he did. He was born in 1877, exactly a hundred years before my eldest daughter.

beantighe

Meiah, I was told about mother's nephew Roger's funeral. He died fairly young, in his 40s, of stomach cancer. I don't know why I wasn't there, but I was told afterwards how the relatives were all standing outside the crem after the funeral. A puff of smoke came out of the chimney, and my Aunt Rhoda piped up: 'Well, there goes our Roger!' Looking back, I think it was very funny, but mother was quite affronted at the time!

meiah

Cool. Makes me smile ( in a fond way) x

Lilly

The only thing I want to hear and see when in my coffin, is that my two dear sons will be friends again [after a recent rift]

and both be there to see me off.

beantighe

Aww, honey!! (((((hugs)))))

I've made up my mind I'm going to have a wonderful time haunting people who pissed me off when I was alive! *evil grin* Big Grin

And I'd love to be able to watch over my daughters, too.

evergreen

I think the humour of life and people is a great way to be remembered.. I love the Irish tradition of a wake... life should be celebrated :)

beantighe

And do you know why it's called a wake? It was in case the person wasn't really dead, and woke up in the middle of his funeral! I seem to remember it was the custom to prop the coffin up with the corpse in it, so it could take part in the festivities if it woke up! People in the 19th century used to have this fear of being buried alive because they were thought to be dead when they were only unconscious.

beantighe

Had a look on Wikipaedia:

A wake is a ceremony associated with death. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased, with the body present; however, modern wakes are often performed at a funeral home.

The English word "wake" originated from the ancient Indo-European root "wog" or "weg," meaning "to be active." This evolved into several meanings, including "growth" ("vegetable"), "to become or stay alert," and "watching or guarding." The third also evolved into the word "watch," and it is in this sense that people have a "wake" for someone who recently died"[1]. While the modern usage of the verb "wake" is to "become or stay alert", a "wake" for the dead harks back to the antiquated "watch or guard" sense. This is contrary to the urban legend that people at a wake are waiting in case the deceased should "wake up."[2]

Departure customs such as 'emigrant wakes' were a marked feature in Ireland during the 19th Century.[3]

So apparently the deceased waking up is an urban legend!

So much for the blarney, lol!

Lilly

beantighe

Ghostly rebellion, perhaps? Or just to let you know he's still looking out for you, just to let you know he's still around.

evergreen

well that's the Irish for you doing everything just in case...

prop me up in the coffin... that will be fine with me

Lilly

beantighe

Thanks, Lilly! I was thinking of that, too!

evergreen

did we just talk about that on another thread.. ???

ok so prop me up with bell in hand

Lilly

beantighe

I haven't got that excuse, I'm not blonde any more..............

david hobbs

Think yourself lucky.

All I get are bald moments.

Raymond

Let the joyous news be spread...

The wicked old Witch at last is dead!!!

david hobbs

Well let's all stop for a bit.

We have been and lost a tit.

Don't laugh and shout

Without a doubt.

He will pop back in a bit.

He'll be casting spells

and ringing bells

it's enough to make you spit.

For what we thought was gone

is still there hanging on

with cokle shells and pretty bells

and the teniest weeniest thong.

Oh to be a thong

that's a thong by the way

not a song

Singings good for the soul

but a thong up Rays hole

brings thoughts that I hope don't go on

Still its so great to have him back

thong or not stuck up his crack

There shall be cake and some tea

and just Raymond and me

Co's with Raymond

you always go back

Anon.

laura

oh david ...i do love your little ditties!!!!!

beantighe

David for Poet Laureate! Big Grin

david hobbs

Perhaps now I read it back I might just go and hide for a while when he returns.

Thing is he makes up pretty good ditties himself.

Not as good as mine naturally but I am hoping for some future improvement once he has finished junior school and obtained a little further education.

Oops did it again....

Raymond

I'd better get my thinking cap on. Hobbs will prpobably need that obituary fairly soon.