My Big Fat Greek Funeral
Yesterday afternoon we got a call from a Greek family. The mother/grandmother had passed away. We show up at the house to bring the body back to the funeral home. The kids/grandkids are running around the living room, chasing each other and playing as if there weren't a dead body in the next room. The adults in the room shooed them out of the house while we were moving Grandma onto the cot.
My immediate supervisor warned me this would be a dramatic scene. Sure enough, when we bring mom/grandma through the house on the way to the hearse, the daughter starts screaming, "Oh My God! Oh My God!" over and over again. The family is fussing at each other in Greek, and watching every move we make, saying things like, "We want visitation TOMORROW!" So they show up this morning, make the arrangements, with visitation later in the day.
When they show up, the whole hysterical scenario begins all over again, with various members of the family very verbally (and very loudly) expressing their grief; "Mama! Don't leave us! Mama, I love you! Oh...! Oh!!!..." It's almost like they're trying out "out-grieve" each other in some sort of mourning contest. Get the picture? Please understand, I'm not criticizing them for the way they grieve, it's a cultural issue and I can appreciate it. But I noticed one potentially negative side-effect of this process. The adults carried on so much, that it affected the kids. The same kids who had been chasing each other so playfully yesterday are sent into similiar hysterics. What's happened? Do they suddenly love Grandma more today than yesterday? No, it's one of two things. Either they think they're expected to do this judging by how the adults are acting, or because they're so freaked out by watching all the adults breakdown at the casket. Right in the middle of all this, one of the adults took one of the kids aside and asked, "Why are you crying? Calm down...Why are you crying?"
WHY DO YOU THINK HE'S CRYING, LADY!? He's just seen the adults have a freak-out, so now he's probably freaking himself.
Thankfully, I'm told we don't handle too many Greek funerals. I'm glad, because I don't think I could stand all the melodrama.
My immediate supervisor warned me this would be a dramatic scene. Sure enough, when we bring mom/grandma through the house on the way to the hearse, the daughter starts screaming, "Oh My God! Oh My God!" over and over again. The family is fussing at each other in Greek, and watching every move we make, saying things like, "We want visitation TOMORROW!" So they show up this morning, make the arrangements, with visitation later in the day.
When they show up, the whole hysterical scenario begins all over again, with various members of the family very verbally (and very loudly) expressing their grief; "Mama! Don't leave us! Mama, I love you! Oh...! Oh!!!..." It's almost like they're trying out "out-grieve" each other in some sort of mourning contest. Get the picture? Please understand, I'm not criticizing them for the way they grieve, it's a cultural issue and I can appreciate it. But I noticed one potentially negative side-effect of this process. The adults carried on so much, that it affected the kids. The same kids who had been chasing each other so playfully yesterday are sent into similiar hysterics. What's happened? Do they suddenly love Grandma more today than yesterday? No, it's one of two things. Either they think they're expected to do this judging by how the adults are acting, or because they're so freaked out by watching all the adults breakdown at the casket. Right in the middle of all this, one of the adults took one of the kids aside and asked, "Why are you crying? Calm down...Why are you crying?"
WHY DO YOU THINK HE'S CRYING, LADY!? He's just seen the adults have a freak-out, so now he's probably freaking himself.
Thankfully, I'm told we don't handle too many Greek funerals. I'm glad, because I don't think I could stand all the melodrama.
posted by Granimore | 8:55 PM
1 Comments:
Oy!! I can only imagine...
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