Catholic Funearal Experience

This was the first time I attended a catholic funeral in my life and it was my landlord’s mother funeral. The place we went is called Ork and is around 180 miles from Omaha so it was more than 3 hours journey. The funeral service was scheduled for 10 AM in the morning so we started from 6.30 AM. After a long time I got a chance to see sunrise from the car on the way, it was one very enchanting moment to remember. Four of us were traveling in one car and everyone was enjoying the beautiful moment. Once we were out of the city of Omaha my landlord didn’t hit towards Highway but through the road where he could show us the farmlands. It was such a beauty, I could say only Wow! Farmland stretched from one side of my peripheral vision to another and I couldn’t see anything other than corns and soybeans and cows shed in between. There were some houses and ranches in between but very few. It reminded me of my village to some extend even though we don’t have that much vast lands. We also passed through some beautiful small towns of Nebraska and one of the names is WAHOO… strange name I thought but realized the inhabitants are mostly Polish, Czech, Bohemians so the name sounds fit. It was a beautiful nice town where everybody knows everyone.

After more than 3 hours of driving and dozing off in between we finally reached Ork town where the funeral was supposed to take place. After some stretching and bending to refresh our body from the long hours drive we went into the Catholic Church where the funeral ceremony was planned. As usual we did some introductions and hands shaking and finally sat down on the church bench. One of my co travelers is a student from Tazakistan, he is Muslim and I am Hindu, and it was our first time so we are kind of trying to do everything what was going on out there. We have to stand and then sit multiple times while the church father was saying the prayers. We even joined the singing session, you know lips singing. After prayers we went to the cemetery site where the burial took place. There another session of prayers was performed and everybody left without putting down the body. When we asked why they told us that family and closed ones don’t like to see the body going down under the earth in front of their eyes. It does make sense. But one thing I learned for the first time was that everyone booked their place in the cemetery from beforehand and can put up the stone with their names written on it. And I saw some of the stones with only the date of birth with my own eyes and I was like wow!!! you can go to the cemetery and see the place where you are actually going to bury when you die and it has even your name written on the stone. To me it will be like visiting your future, maybe it is just my thought.

After that we had dinner party, I don’t know why they called it dinner because it was 1.00 PM when we had it. I preferred to call it lunch but remembered the saying, “When you are in Rome do what the Romans do”. So kept quiet and just follow the rules. After the dinner was over we have to attend a memorial ceremony in the Nursing Home where she was staying till her last moment. The service was attended by her fellow nursing home mates and family members. The nursing home was very nice and I got a chance to talk to some of the residents there, they seemed to be very lonely and were very happy and eager to talk to me. Looking at them I was like, I don’t want my parents to stay in a nursing home, it looks too lonely to me. After everything was over we finally left for Omaha at 5 PM, another 3-4 hours journey and reached home at 10 PM, ah!!! I was thinking why 5 hours while returning back, forgot to mention we had real dinner on the way. And also I forgot to mention one thing I noticed, I didn't see anyone crying, rather I saw relatives laughing and smiling and it was more like a family reunion and party than a funeral. May be it was different in different tradition because in our tradition funeral is a very serious and everyone will be either mourning or crying. May be in their tradition they don't cry openly or may be she was 87 years and their family thought it was life well spent as my landlord told me she was a very lucky lady and her life was full of happiness.

But overall it was a nice experience and got to see a Catholic funeral for the first time and also the vast Agricultural area of United States. It was a double treat for me.

....ila