My Big Fat Greek Funeral, Part Two

Today we conducted the funeral service for the Greek family. Once again it was high drama. There were some unexpected moments awaiting me. We had anticipated the service lasting at least an hour. A word of explanation: In Greek funerals the open casket is placed on the altar, with the feet pointing away from the pews. At the end of the service the casket is rotated ninety degrees, with the casket ending up parallel to the pews. The mourners then file by and say their last farewells. Once the casket was in place, the owner of the funeral home sent me to McDonald's to get us some lunch. In the meantime, the other funeral director took the flower van on a death call (he went to pick up a dead body). I got back in about 20 minutes, and we stood outside the church eating. When I finished, I told the owner I was going to observe the rest of the service, so I went inside. I hadn't been in there 10 seconds when I heard the priest call for the Funeral Directors to come turn the casket. I was the only "funeral director" in the building, so I went up to the altar and turned the casket, with a little help from the priest (he basically told me when to stop turning) and then made my exit. I went outside and told the owner the casket had been turned and the mourners were preparing to file by. The other funeral director calls about that time to say he just now has collected the body and is on his way to the funeral home. The owner told him to hurry up and get back to the church. We had expected all of this to take at least an hour, yet it was only about 40 minutes or so, if that! The other funeral director arrived just in time to see the last of the mourners file by, again with the dramatic wailing and crying. Please understand, this is their culture and I am not trying to judge them or ridicule their customs. It is just so different from what I am used to.

Once the casket was outside the narthex, I began loading the flowers in the van. The other funeral director started helping me, then he and the owner decided the funeral director would drive the flower van instead of me and get the flowers to the cemetery, then leave to take yet another death call. That left the owner to drive the lead car, with me driving the hearse and one of our part-timers driving the limo. Talk about a day! My first Greek funeral AND my first time driving the hearse in procession. At the cemetery, the family witnessed the lowering of the casket, threw in some flowers and some soil, and then slowly began to disperse. It was quite a day!