Well that was a day.
This service was a Catholic service… the service was held at a Catholic Church ⛪️
However – due to corona – things are handled quite oddly at the moment.
Everything is outside, with masks, and distance.
We had to wait on pall bearers to bring casket out.. they took forever!!! Even the priest was like … “we have to bring the casket out.”
The pall bearers (people who hold the casket and bring it out) were from the family. They wanted certain people only, and then once we had them all…
The family wanted to wait until the husband got there … but we were already pushing time.
So we had to bring out the casket before the husband got there.
It rolls out of the hearse… and onto a platform with wheels… and each pall bearer (3 on each side) wheel the casket over.
The priest blessed the casket… we covered the casket with a beautiful shroud
They did a mass with communion… and then we refolded the shroud, and put the flowers on top of the casket.
The flowers were incredible!! Seriously THE most beautiful flowers, I have seen yet!!! That was a lot of money!!! That was incredibly beautiful!!
We loaded the other flowers in to the van that I was driving…
And then we had to wait for the pall bearers again 🤨
I walked in front while they followed behind with the casket – and we loaded it into the hearse.
We to that same catholic memorial park, I told you about before? The one with only markers in the ground or on the walls.
Once again we had to wait on pall bearers.
And then my girl says to me – you need to take the coach back right away!! They need it ASAP 😮
Wait what? What will I be driving? They call the hearse “the coach” – whatever
So I got to drive the hearse back to the funeral home. You definitely draw attention driving a hearse… and no one cuts you off – they wait lol ❤️✌️
I DO like the way the hearse handles!! I kinda want one 😄😘
Evidentially my girls from MY funeral home… did not plan well… they had one funeral far away where their hearse was needed – but the girl had a service here in town and needed a hearse so they took ugly walls hearse.
Also… the family was nice enough not to make us wear those black jackets – so I was extremely thankful for that!!
On my way home I needed something from store and actually had to go in… a complete strange woman stopped me just to tell me how beautiful I looked – that was very nice
I’m cool if a woman says it… if a man says it my guard goes up lol – funny how that works 😘
But that was nice 🥰
That was a long day. I got to escape back early and not stay at burial, but only because they needed the hearse.
It is so busy with funerals now 😮😮😮
Learning Life 
Sad that there are so many funerals. Are there “seasons” to funerals… like a lot in summer and winter but few in spring, or something like that?? Just curious.
Yay for no jackets!
Did the pallbearers ever have to carry the casket without a cart? A friend had to do that and would not stop bitching about it later (even with distributing weight it was much heavier than he expected).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure yet… but I am thinking summer is a big season – because of the heat.. strokes and heart attacks etc…
I would also think the holiday season be a bad time too… with the stresses? Or bills.
That’s my guess… I’ve only been here since February and then it shut down until July … we had to play catch up all of June and July … every time they change what we can do – we have to adjust… right now is a hard time to die!! We are limited
And we’ve been having a lot of deaths lately
I know at least one for sure was corona related. That was a thing because what do you do with the family and friends ? There may have been contact. So that adds to difficulties
Nope we always use the cart… it is extremely heavy!!! The casket itself is heavy, and then you add a person in there and it’s really heavy!!! I can see why they bitched!!
We had a casket dropped off once and we had it on the roller we use for services (beautiful oak type platform – very ornate)
When it was delivered they placed it incorrectly so it was not centered – took 4 girls to even get it somewhat ok.
I have nerve damage – another one just had back surgery. So yeah we a bunch of invalids lol … but we did it, and it was fine
But they are crazy heavy!!! Even distributing weight it IS heavy!!
Is always done with that wheely cart- I will have to ask what that is called?
LikeLike
It is sad that you are getting so many funerals. I am Church of England but went to a catholic ceremony once. It was such an eye opener and so different to what I had come across before. My partners family are Quaker. Again that was an eye opener.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know literally NOTHING about the Church of England 😮 I know OF it… heard of it… know it’s position in history… but I do not know that religion.
Quaker’s were some of the first people here in America!!!
The only one I really actually know is Catholic – that was how I was raised – it’s what I know, and when I need comfort, sometimes I like the prayers or rituals … I’m not a church person though… I’m just really private, even more so with that… I do claim Catholic and do want last rites
I went to a Lutheran church with a girlfriend when I was 9 or 10… 😮😮 … felt all wrong because they have pastors not priests … and they allowed to marry and have kids!! I could NOT wrap my brain around that lol
And then here with funeral home – I kinda get a small surface taste of quite a few religions – the Catholic ones I know… Learned Jewish, and Muslim – those are probably the 3 really big ones.
I have a side of my family that was cut off due to religion… my side is Catholic … the other side is Protestant … basically extremely similar… but Catholic carries more traditions and rituals ?
Anyway, they came into my life when someone was looking for me and found me… genealogy stuff – I didn’t even know they existed 😮… they tell me they were Protestant pretty much right away… I was like ok?? Lol I don’t base anything on religion lol but I think they wanted to make sure cause that was ONE of several reasons they were lost from family in the first place 😔 (so dumb!)
I do love learning about all the different religions!!! I’m so curious!! It’s fascinating!
LikeLiked by 1 person