Twiki speaks

Went to my uncle's funeral on Tuesday, which was very strange.

Hadn't seen my unclde for 16 years, despite him living pretty close. Therefore, I actually only knew three other people at the funeral - my mum, dad and my aunty, and my mum had to point out my uncle's wife and his children - my cousins.

Felt like a stranger, not helped by the fact that only three of us seemed to making the responses during the service, which was held at the crematorium.

It's the second time I've been to a crematorium and I realise I don't like them. Obviously, I don't think many people will vote for them as their favourite outing but they seem too impersonal and sanitary.

In trying to make the death a more comforting process, they've taken away the mystery of it all and the earthiness. I believe in the idea of ashes to ashes, dust to dust, which lowering someone into the ground signifies. All that happens at a crem is that a curtain goes round the room containing the coffin and, that's it. There's no finality to that.

It all seems a bit processed as well. You go in one entrance, someone says a few words and then we nip out of another exit so as not to bump into the next lot of mourners. There's no real rememberance, celebration of a life, mourning of a death. It's all artificial, intended to dull the senses and lessen the impact, rather than allowing grief to run its course.

The thing about a crem as well is that's its all about death. A church is where baptisms, marriages, celebrations occur. There's life in a church, whereas crematoria seem soulless places.

Anyway, back to work...