Funeral

So yesterday I attended a funeral.

It was the funeral of a distant relative. An old lady who took to telling me the whereabouts of other relatives I had never laid my eyes on whenever I met her.

A bus took the mourning crowd to an odd looking funeral home in the outskirts.  Sort of Egyptian with a contemporary twist. The type of building one can guess only could find funding whilst the economic boom.
After finding out where our dead was, pay our respects to the people who really cared for her and have a last look at the empty frame of a person who we all had known and appreciated to some extent; we headed for the burial place.

It was a nice and  peaceful setting by the beach. By now there were some thirty folk under the fading wintery light. Only four or five were really close to the deceased. The rest of us were there more to accompany the living than anything else.
A quick service took place. She was buried. Flowers were laid. During all those procedures people kept the serene composure of those knowing that a vital cycle had come to an end naturally.

If you don't share your life with a parrot or a turtle, chances are that you are going to outlive your pets. Not only that, you are going to know a decrepit version of your beloved companion, as you knew their energetic selves. One day the signs of age start to show, and the next one you are facing a future with your furry family being at a perpetual low ebb till the inevitable happens.

 It is both a natural and saddening experience. By now I can only imagine the melancholy that will come to me in a few years time, once that Mr. and Mrs. cat are not longer around.