What I did not expect about today was for the crank that lowers the coffin to be so noisy. It ticked occasionally and squeaked and my dad could not resist leaning over: “Needs some WD40.” I did not expect the coffin to be lowered at all while we were still there, but it was part of the ceremony and then people were asked to throw shovels of dirt in the grave.
Granted, I haven’t been to a funeral in several years, but I was sure I’d never seen this before, accept maybe in the movies, where I think they cut between starting to lower the coffin and the dirt part, as the lowering took quite a bit longer than expected as we all stood there silently watching. The cemetery workers were sweating, a little, when they finished, which for whatever reason was really awful to see. And the dirt sounded like it fell on metal when it hit the coffin and I thought, Oh no, is Aunt Minnie down there in an aluminum coffin? I figured they were all made of wood, but hers was silver so I guess I should have guessed?
I didn’t expect it to be so sunny, or to be so upset by the whole thing, or to be so hungry. My stomach was rumbling loud enough to wake the…you know. Bad joke.
