My Two Days (2/3) - The Funeral

So, the next day, which was Friday, was the day of the funeral.  Since we are family and we were all part of the funeral, we had to first go to the funeral parlor to have a prayer service and pay our last respects before they would close the coffin.  Well, I thought we had to be there for 9 AM and the actual funeral started at 10 AM, my dad thought we had to be there at 8:30, and my brother thought 8:45.  I had to rush to get ready since I thought that I would have an extra half hour.  When we got there, we sat around for a little while.  As a side note, I always thought that the deceased were put in a cold storage like place overnight and taken out the next day.... I was wrong.  Everything was left as it was from the night before.  When the director came in, we had a little prayer service, each went up one last time, and walked out so that the casket was closed.  Then we went to the church in a procession following the flowers, herse, and the limo with my two brothers, sister-in-law, her mother, and two of their really close friends in it. 

The mass for the funeral was really hard.  My sister-in-law and her mother were crying a lot.  I was trying not to cry because I actually hate to cry in front of people.  Ironically though, when I see people cry, especially those that are very close to me, I will start to tear up.  That actually bothers me though because it does not necessarily have to be people that I am familiar with or know on a personal level.  So if anyone is ever crying and you see me purposely looking in every direction but yours, you now know why.  Anyway, the priest said a lot of really nice and personal things that really meant something to the people who knew Gigi.  After the mass was over, we went back to our cars and had to wait about 15 minutes for the priest.  We kind of created a bit of a traffic jam in the parking lot as other people were trying to enter for a funeral immediately after ours at 11AM.  We then went to the cemetary for the final parting.  Everyone was given a a flower to put down beside that casket after the prayers.  Finally, we drove back to the funeral home following teh limo to get my one brother back while everyone else in the limo had to go back for their own cars.  Another side note, I thought that in the cemetary during the funeral, the casket gets lowered and a close relative puts a shovel-full of dirt afterwards.  My dad said that it used to happen, but not so much anymore because some people cannot take the site of that happening and actually jump in to the hole. O.O  I only thought that happened in movies.