Funeral Homes

A friend in the city once told me he had been to a funeral home maybe three or four times in his whole life. He said it didn't seem that city people went to a lot of funerals. I had to go twice this week. Well, I didn't HAVE to go. But in a small town, it's what you do to let your friends and neighbors know you care. Sometimes you go to pay respects to one family and then you meet another family at the funeral home. You say, heyyyy I knew that guy too! So you get to pay respects to two families. It's never a happy thing. But you get to say hi to people you haven't seen in awhile, to quietly acknowledge the loss and then you smile and take a moment to say how are you, how are you doing, stay well eh. It's a strange ritual. But it's comforting. I am glad to live here.