The Day of Richard’s Funeral
By Michele (Richard's niece)

As I walked into the funeral home on this gloomy mournful Sunday morning I could see a painful expression on my grandmother’s face. It hurt me to see everyone like this. But it made me overjoyed to know that everyone cared about my Uncle. I saw my cousin sitting in the corner by herself so I went up to her and said, " Hey! Ali would you like to go for a walk with me?" she said " sure" We walked outside and talked about the memories we had with each other. We even talked about the memories of our Uncle Richard.

By the time we had walked around the funeral home twice it was time to go into the service. I had this feeling of queasiness in the pit of my stomach. I started to feel extremely nauseous.

We started to walk into the room where the funeral was being held and I looked over to see my mother bawling her eyes out. She kept yelling " I cant do it" " I cant do it". My mom had to go in to another room with my dad so she could calm down but still hear the service. I had to go into the funeral with my brother. As we sat and listened to the rabbi talk to us about Richard I started to cry. I could taste the salty tears running down my face into my mouth. They tasted so bitter and sweet at the same time.

The thing that I most remember about the funeral was that it was my first time hearing my brother say " I love you". I started to cry even more.

As the funeral continued I listened to all the eulogies about Richard. I looked around at all of the people. I could see the pain in my family’s eyes. But as I started to cry more I remember what my Aunt Lynn had said When the tears start to come look up and they wont come out. The end of the funeral came and it was time to go to my Aunt Lynn’s house to sit shiver.

We got to my Aunt’s house at about 1:00 I walked in to see about 300 people standing in the house. It was so crowded that I could barely walk through the kitchen. I followed my cousin’s upstairs to Allison’s room where we decided to make a radio station to cheer ourselves up.

After about an hour of Allison’s karaoke radio station we went downstairs to talk to some people. We sat down on the swinging chair outside. At that moment one of my Uncle’s friend’s named Jim walked up to us and asked what the scariest part of the funeral was for us. All three of us at the same time said that the fact that his body was in front of us. We all laughed and then cried.

As it started to become night time I began to relax and have fun with my cousins. We laughed and danced. We even played charades. I noticed that I had been closer to my family today then ever before. So in a way I thank my Uncle for passing on so that I could go to new York for his funeral and get closer to my family. It was neat because my cousin’s didn’t want me to go home and sometimes I wish that there would be a happy excuse for me to go to New York so I could go play charades again and talk and have fun.

As I end my essay I would just like to write a thought to my Uncle.

Richard I love you so much don’t ever forget that. Although your death was hard I thank you for bringing me closer to our family. I would just like to say that none of us will ever forget you. We all want to say that we love you and miss you. We all hope that you are having fun being a butterfly. Goodbye for now until we see you at the gates leading to heaven.