tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5811749743523633503.post75387658066920157..comments2024-03-20T11:36:53.907+00:00Comments on Restoring Mayberry: Wake in the fieldsBrian Kallerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11082602126850605083noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5811749743523633503.post-80077734653057278702015-04-27T05:17:25.920+01:002015-04-27T05:17:25.920+01:00Thank you Brian for reviving memories when I was a...Thank you Brian for reviving memories when I was a child in Philly in Pa. My father took me to a wake of one of my boy scout friends. It was in the home, they were Irish Americans and they kept the tradition. It was so much more moving than what we experience in America today. The neighbors gathered and the women mourning and the men telling stories of the deceased and drinking. It made a huge impression on me as a child. As a priest I miss the familiarity of it and the warmth! It just seemed right to remember the deceased this way in his home.Fr Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07782565153638310353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5811749743523633503.post-26124586662578621942015-04-25T12:53:44.252+01:002015-04-25T12:53:44.252+01:00Sarah,
Thank you. I've been listening to int...Sarah, <br /><br />Thank you. I've been listening to interviews with Irish in the 1970s and 80s, and they all assumed that death would be handled by a family -- laying the body on the table, carrying it to church and so on. <br /><br />There was a great hostility to the idea of funeral homes when they appeared -- it took people away from their loved ones at the most intimate moment. <br />Brian Kallerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082602126850605083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5811749743523633503.post-28940560283327613652015-04-23T13:49:34.344+01:002015-04-23T13:49:34.344+01:00A lovely, moving post. I was particularly struck ...A lovely, moving post. I was particularly struck by the way that death is still a community affair with the body in the house, where presumably your neighbour died, not whisked away from the hospital by the undertaker. I think it's a much gentler and more natural way of coping with the transition from life to death and I wish I could be lucky enough to die in such a way.Sarah Rnoreply@blogger.com