We Laughed At Dad's Funeral

[Revolution]

Snoutport  (1000+ posts)        Mon May-02-11 08:02 PM
Original message
My mother and I started laughing at my father's funeral. Laughing REALLY hard...
 Edited on Mon May-02-11 08:10 PM by Snoutport
and no matter what we did we couldn't stop laughing. My mother turned and buried her face in my brother's shoulder and I turned and buried my face on my Aunt Pat's shoulder and she and I pretended we were crying. It was awful. And because it looked like we were crying hysterically, suddenly everyone behind us started to lose it and began wailing and crying. People fled sobbing in tears, my dad's sister swooned, and all through it my mother is digging her fingernails into my arm as we shook, and laughed and giggled. (we were deserving of academy awards that day, I'll tell you...everyone thought we were overcome with crying.)

I bring this up because terrible loss can present itself in a variety of strange, uncomfortable, angry and sad ways. Some of us need to be alone, others need to be super nice about the dead, others are angry...some people, like my poor mom and me, get the giggles.

9-11 was a terrible, terrible day. We might be more numb to it but we have not healed. Those moments are seared into our minds. I don't picture the towers falling. I was watching the news as it started and what I still picture to this day, was this African American man in a dark blue shirt with a purple tie falling from the first tower like a leaf.

So, c'mon everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY...not just DU)--this is the end of a very long funeral. Our whole country has been severely traumatized. Go easy on each other...let people vent their pain and angst...and just picture it in your mind as a funeral. You aren't gonna yell at your Aunt because she's angry that her husband is dead. You wouldn't belittle your mom because she was a little bit hysterical or said something that wasn't so nice.

Nah...you'd go get a box of kleenex for your aunt or you'd find your mom a cup of tea and give her a kiss and a hug. You sure as heck wouldn't try to make it worse.

I encourage you all to have your say, to vent, to get it the f#ck out of your system so we can all start to heal from this long, long period of mourning. Peace people.
 

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1018230

I think I want to throw up. This just gives me the creeps. I've had a lot of mixed feelings when presented with death of a loved one as I am sure many of you have. Personally though, I have NEVER been overcome with "bouts of laughter/the giggles. Snoutport is a few coins short of a dollar, I fear. The X chromosome may be faulty in his familky based on his little story.

[true_blood]

 

[thelaughingman]

"Hey, ma.  Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side."

[GOBUCKS]

Snoutport  (1000+ posts)        Mon May-02-11 08:02 PM
Original message
My mother and I started laughing at my father's funeral.

This bouncy tale, which is of course bogus, reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where he was in trouble with his parents because they saw him in a theater making out with his girlfriend during "Schindler's List".

[chitownchica]

Wow - I've heard of grieving in unusual ways, but stifling laughter during the funeral? That's a new low.

[Revolution]

It seemed like a to me at first as well, but the more I got to thinking, the more I got to mulling it around in my head, the more I thought about it. I thought; DUmmies are cruel. They are shallow, narrow minded freaks. They dislike everyone, and everything, are only concerened with the (D) and when you get right down to the rat killing, only look out for themselves. DUmors lie, of course, but they also participate in, and practice nefarious, disturbing, devious shit. To tell you the truth, I don't think it's a bouncy, but even if I am wrong, it angers me. It is, as I said before...disgusting.

[BattleHymn]

I've been to two funerals.  Both times, there was laughter, but it was the reminiscing type of laughter that everyone participated in, not just the odd couple of people yucking it up. 

[BEG]

I wanted to smack my brother's widow in the face when I first saw her at my brother's funeral. The day he died she said terrible things about him to my mom, said my mom could bury him where ever she wants because she won't be visiting his grave site.  Yet she let my mom pay for two funerals (one in the city he lived in and one back home) and the whole burial.  At his funeral she was boo hooing and I was designated to "care" for her. All I could think about was that she gave my brother the drug that killed him....I wanted to strangle her.

This despicable person is one of you, DUers. She is a rabid idiotic liberal who lives off the government. She is also subhuman, just like you.

[BEG]

I've been to two funerals.  Both times, there was laughter, but it was the reminiscing type of laughter that everyone participated in, not just the odd couple of people yucking it up. 

That is what the husband of a friend of my moms memorial was like. Happy memories of a good man. People got up and told their stories and jokes about him.  There was no body to mourn (he left his body to science, he died from COPD) and it somehow made it easier to remember the person better.

[Ballygrl]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but isn't the OP basically advocating laughing at the way Bin Laden went out? laughing at him being gone?

[FreeBorn]

"Hey, ma.  Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side."

Are you Vesta's son? (serious question).

[diesel driver]

I've been to two funerals.  Both times, there was laughter, but it was the reminiscing type of laughter that everyone participated in, not just the odd couple of people yucking it up. 

Same here.  Our family would usually be in one section remembering points in the loved one's life, starting off our own tales of them with "Do you remember when..."

[Revolution]

Oh there's is definetly room for laughter at a funeral. Especially if your loved one was a joker, or a prankster. There are some uncles in my family we'd most assuradely be telling stories about in somber rememberance. However, it would have to be in the EXACT right time, and frame of mind, in my view. This jerk just seems like he was laughing with his mom throughout the whole damn thing...

[NHSparky]

I've been to two funerals.  Both times, there was laughter, but it was the reminiscing type of laughter that everyone participated in, not just the odd couple of people yucking it up. 

Bingo.  We did a memorial service for Dad.  I got a chuckle when I spoke about him and told the folks about how his love was unconditional--even the day I decided to become an electrician (ever see a room full of construction workers crack up, knowing Dad HATED electrical anything?)

[IassaFTots]

"Hey, ma.  Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side."

Dang.  Thanks for that earworm!   

[DumbAss Tanker]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but isn't the OP basically advocating laughing at the way Bin Laden went out? laughing at him being gone?

No, I think the DUmmie is saying that the two of them had uncontrollable nervous laughter, which does not mean they thought it was funny.  Doesn't actually say they didn't think it was funny, either, but doesn't give any reason to believe they were glad he was dead either).  Some poorly-adjusted people do react to stressful depressing situations this way.

The bigger point the OP is trying to make is that people will take the news in many different ways, and is asking them not to get wound up jumping on each other about what their reactions 'Should' be.  If it had been more clearly and completely written, it could have been a 'Best of' post. 

[thelaughingman]

Are you Vesta's son? (serious question).

No.


Out of curiousity, why do you ask?

[debk]

No, I think the DUmmie is saying that the two of them had uncontrollable nervous laughter, which does not mean they thought it was funny.  Doesn't actually say they didn't think it was funny, either, but doesn't give any reason to believe they were glad he was dead either).  Some poorly-adjusted people do react to stressful depressing situations this way.

The bigger point the OP is trying to make is that people will take the news in many different ways, and is asking them not to get wound up jumping on each other about what their reactions 'Should' be.  If it had been more clearly and completely written, it could have been a 'Best of' post. 

I thought pretty  much the same thing.

When it's a close family member who dies, those left behind, have had a very exhausting couple of days, if not weeks, months, years. I can see where something "odd" happening, could make one giggle, and if one is totally exhausted, the giggle can turn into something that is not really funny, but bordering on tears. It's more of a hysterical reaction, rather than a Ha-Ha funny reaction.

Mourners are also going to react differently at the funeral of someone who has lived a long and full life as opposed to one who's life was cut short either by illness or by tragedy.

[Ballygrl]

No, I think the DUmmie is saying that the two of them had uncontrollable nervous laughter, which does not mean they thought it was funny.  Doesn't actually say they didn't think it was funny, either, but doesn't give any reason to believe they were glad he was dead either).  Some poorly-adjusted people do react to stressful depressing situations this way.

The bigger point the OP is trying to make is that people will take the news in many different ways, and is asking them not to get wound up jumping on each other about what their reactions 'Should' be.  If it had been more clearly and completely written, it could have been a 'Best of' post.

Well then they're crazy if they feel like that toward Bin Laden because there wouldn't be any emotional attachment to him.