Cal.E.'s Korner

C.: (I wonder if Trey has gone back to college yet. I’ll email d.c. to ask if I can text him to tell him I want to call him. That’s the most efficient thing to do.)

(ring) On, hi, d.c. I see you got my email, but I was going to text you…

d.: I got your email. I know that you wanted text me to see if I had time to talk on the phone. I do.

C.: Well, I wasn’t planning on us getting married, but I do have some questions for you.

d.: Yes, you said you wanted to know what humans had funerals on this planet. The short answer is to pay respect.

C.: Well, if someone is dead, then how will s/he know you came to his or her funeral?

d.: they won’t, but their family will. That’s who you pay respect to, the family.

C.: but it was a family member of yours that died. I don’t get it.

d.: Some people would agree, and, honestly, it’s up to the family. Some families don’t have funerals but do have memorial services. That’s usually for people who are cremated. Some families don’t even do that.

C.: So, which families are more prone to have funerals?

d.: It’s usually those people who have large families, and certain beliefs about the afterlife that I won’t go into now. A funeral is for the living, though. It’s a place to show appreciation for the deceased.

C.: How?

d.: Well, you may tell stories about the one who has passed from this world, or you may do things that person enjoyed remembering him or her.

I’ll call my relative BIL. BIL was fond of the outdoors. He worked in an industry that required him to be outside, so when BIL retired, he spent a lot of time working in his rather large yard.

I’ve known a lot of people from my hometown who were involved in the industry that BIL made his living from, and he fit that mold. In that industry, you can find a lot of honest, honorable people who are well paid, but work hard for what they make. When they are off work, they like to play as hard as they work. And you will never find a better, more loyal friend than someone in that industry. Just don’t get on their bad side.

C.: Why?

d.: Well, BIL liked to hunt big games, like deer, and he was good at it. It isn’t a good idea to make someone mad who can hit a target at over three hundred yards with a high-powered rifle!

Seriously, BIL, and the people I’ve known who did the kind of work he did will give you the shirt off their backs if they think you need it. I spent a lot of time sleeping on BIL’s couch as a teenager, and so did a lot of other people.

I was just there to visit, but BIL would let people stay with him if they needed a place to stay. He was also not stingy with his money. I didn’t know how much he’d helped some of his friends and family members until his funeral. BIL wasn’t one to brag about such things.

C.: He sounds like he was a good guy.

d.: He was, but BIL was also in a lot of pain physically, so I know that pain has now been relieved.

Cal.E., everyone has their faults, but sometimes we lose good people seemingly before their time. I’ve told many people about my “pseudo big sister” who didn’t drink or smoke, exercised and ate healthfully. She was not underweight but was far from being overweight. She visited people in the hospital and helped other people in other ways.

All mature humans know that life isn’t fair, but what happened to my friend still haunts me.

C.: What was that?

d.: She died of an inoperable brain tumor at the age of fifty-nine. BIL was only ten years older than she was when he died.

C.: That reminds me of an old Billy Joel song…

d.: “Only the Good Die Young?”

C.: Yes.

d.: Well, at least BIL and my friend did reach the age of retirement. There are children who pass away with cancer or some other ailment before they can even go to school. In some cases, they pass before they can walk. It doesn’t seem fair, but it is out of our control.

C.: Well, on that note, I think we’ll close the blog for today. Out of respect for those you just mentioned in this blog, we won’t do our usual silly ending.

d.: To my mother, BIL my friend, and others who have made an impression on each of us before they passed, rest peacefully