Recently, my wife’s grandfather passed away. It happened fairly suddenly — we were out looking for a new mattress for our daughter when we got the news, and over the rest of the week, everything was completely different as the wake/funeral info was organized, relatives from all over the country (and globe) arrived, my wife and I worked on a handout of her grandfather, and lots of visits to her grandmother.
During the wake, though, and the funeral, I noticed something that stuck me.
First of all, this was the first wake and funeral I had been to in about 20+ years. When my own grandparents passed not too long ago, we just had a memorial for them, along for my paternal grandfather, we did gather at the grave to set his ashes into the plot.
Still, I was a bit surprised to see that a number of people at both the wake and funeral — of all ages — were using their phones to record and photo the proceedings. They weren’t doing the “joke” version of it, like taking selfies with the deceased, mind you — just taking pictures of people there and videoing the happenings around them.
It made me think about how probably not too long ago, this sort of thing would be considered “inappropriate,” in that you don’t do this during such a solemn time. But then, why not?
That is to say, we want to remember the person, and often during these times this is the first time that you will have seen people for a long time. So, why not take some memories with from the event? Not to say that you need to share it via a Twitch stream, but even then, why not? If that’s how you want to help celebrate a person’s life and help remember them, might as well.