The Service and after

    It was a Catholic service.  I wept through the entire thing.  They played wind beneath my wings, a long time favorite song of mine.  People spoke of Brian's life, how he had a great childhood, but made several wrong decisions in his later years.  "He just chose the wrong path" was said over and over again, in different words, by his family who gave the eulogy.  

    After the funeral, we walked across the street to the graveyard.  The casket was placed over the hole and the pastor said a few words.  The family dripped holy water over his casket. That was it.  Many took flowers from under the casket.  

    We arrived back to the church.  The family had arranged for a meal afterward.   Brian's grandfather got up and began to dance around, playing his accordion.  The family said that Brian would not want us to mourn his death but rather to celebrate his life.  It was quite a site, all of the family was smiling and laughing.....as if they forgot that the work crews were now lowering the body of their son into the ground.  We, being the Centennial crowd,  got our food, and were instructed to go sit in a multi purpose room adjacent to the main gathering.  Very few of us protested because we didn't fee like celebrating anyway.  

    One of Brian's roommates had a story that summed up Brian from Teenage Chicken Soup for the Soul.  He asked if he could read it to the group.  He as told by family members that they were in charge of the funeral and that he could not read it.  He got upset and stormed out-across the road to sit at the hole where Brian lay.  All the Centennial kids walked across the street and circled the hole.  Some members of Brian's family came out.  The family was on one side of the hole, we were on the other.  

(I kept thinking that this couldn't be happening - too much like a movie of the week)

The family began to shout that we were being disrespectful of their right to grieve.  They also claimed that we didn't know Brian.  Various people from our school who were close to Brian yelled back.  The story was read in spite of the family.  I remember Rachel threw a brownie into the hole because the tradition of the morning was to meet Brian for his morning cigarette .  Rachel and Sarah would always have doughnuts to eat.  That was the last time  she gave him food.

    Since we pissed off the family so much with our little "display," the bus drove over to the graveyard to pick us up.  We rode back, not only upset over Brian's death, but also because of the entire show that we had witnessed from his family.

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