I mentioned on other forums. My friend was trying to sugarcoat it and tell his daughter that PawPaw went to heaven and was with the angels and couldn't come back. He said she gave him a horrified look and said "PawPaw is DEAD?" and started crying. It wrecked my friend. Fortunately, being a child she didn't dwell on it for too long and was back to playing like nothing had happened later on. She sometimes says she misses him.
The funeral today was rough. My friend's grandmother was sobbing and wailing, which made it worse for her surviving sons and my friend. It was open casket and the granddaughter was being held so she could see the body. She put one of her favorite My Little Pony toys in the casket with him and said "I wish he could come back to life" (but she wasn't crying or sad then). It wasn't until later on when she noticed her father (my friend) crying that she got upset. My friend's mother was holding her but she wanted to go to her father. She hugged him and cried on his shoulder and then sat back and was putting her hands on his face and wiping the tears away. There wasn't room on the family bench for my friend's girlfriend so she was next to me. She leaned on me a few times when she was getting hit with waves of grief. She started sobbing when she saw my friend cry, so I held her and did my best to comfort her. I think I went through half a pack of tissues-- seeing other people cry always makes me cry.
Saw some friends that lately we only see at funerals.
I also noticed a tradition that I'd never noticed in other places where we lived. Vehicles going the opposite direction pull on to the shoulder and stop (or just stop in the road) out of respect for the funeral procession.
The cemetery part was very short, thankfully. Although, one of the preachers said something about how one day the souls would return to the bodies in the cemetery and they were going to rise up and my first thought was "zombie apocalypse" (which I whispered to my friend and he laughed). His grandmother gave me a big hug and thanked me for all the help we've given her son and asked us to always be there for him. Lots of hugs all around. She invited my mother to come over and visit her for coffee and such. I'm hoping my mother will take her up on the offer because she needs to get out of the house more.
One of my brother's old friends from school now works as a prison guard and was telling my brother they need more guards so my brother might apply there. He also helped my mother up from the seat because she was having trouble. I told him "We have to stop meeting like this!" because the last time we saw each other was at his grandmother's funeral.
I'm hoping there won't be anymore funerals for a long time, but I would like to see the friends again in a happier setting. Maybe arrange some sort of gathering someday.
My inner Grumpy Cat was cringing through a lot of the funeral-- I hate funerals. They spent less than 2 minutes talking about the actual deceased and the rest was all sermon and how people are going to hell if they don't believe. I almost laughed when they said the guy was "gentle" because he was known for busting people's faces, breaking arms, and generally beating the crap out of people if they crossed him or his family. Of course, they weren't going to bring that up. Also, they played country music and I hate country music. I was sitting there thinking "I'm at a funeral with people crying, my nose is running, and they are playing country music". It was the trifecta. LOL.