A Funeral

Last Saturday we attended the funeral of Sun-Ling's Great Aunt, her maternal grandmother's younger sister, who had gone into a coma on the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year and died without regaining consciousness. She was over eighty and in poor health for many years.

The funeral was in Shanghai, not far from our apartment. Upon arrival at the funeral home - four floors and able to support several simultaneous funerals - we signed in and each received a black arm patch, bottled water, small blue towel, and a single long stem yellow flower.

The ceremony was short: a few words from a representative sent by her former work unit and a few words from the oldest son. After the traditional bowing, the open coffin was tenderly loaded with flowers, blankets, paper money, and other afterlife necessaries, then nailed shut and sent to the crematoria.

We, along with all the other mourners, then walked outside, dropped our arm patches in a small open fire (on the sidewalk), swung a leg over the fire (symbolic jumping over the fire), and all boarded a bus to go to lunch.

Here is a photo of Sun-Ling and Great Aunt - we called her Mei Do Na in the local dialect - on the 1st day of the Chinese New Year, just a few days before she went in to the coma.