›› Funeral Announcements
Because of
the trauma involved when someone near and dear to you dies, it is
important that everything in the preparations for the funeral goes as
smoothly as possible. You don't want to have to squabble with the
funeral home about arrangements, or to have to worry about feeding your
guests, or about family conflicts. Every detail, from the plot to the
funeral announcements should be made easy and painless for the
bereaved. I can tell you how much more difficult it can make everything
if it isn't.
We actually had our
funeral announcements misprinted when my brother Sam died. We double
checked them – I know we did – and made sure that
everything was neatly in order, but despite all of that, the company
used the wrong everything. I think the design they used for the funeral
announcements was actually meant for a wedding card, or perhaps a thank
you note. It showed pretty little bluebirds carrying little bits of
string up to prepare their nest, and said, in bubbly nauseating script,
“Wishing you the Best” on the front cover. My
mother cried when she saw the funeral announcements.
On the inside of the funeral announcement, it had what we had planned
for it to say in it. It was a poem Sam wrote when he was twelve about
his life's goals. He had wished, from a very early age, to devote his
existence to the study of music. An early prodigy, the piano had been
his life from a very young age and the poem was very sophisticated,
talking about “the music dancing through his
fingers”, and giving us a glimpse of that music through its
intricate and subtle phrasing.
But the content of
that page was so out of sync with the rest of the funeral
announcements, that the effect was almost comical. The bluebirds, the
smiley sun – did I forget to tell you about the smiley sun?
It was chipper and cartoonish and done with gold foil of all things, on
the front cover, beaming out in irritating cheesy reflections at the
baffled eyes of the bereaved. And the worse thing about it was that the
company that made the funeral announcements refused to take
responsibility. They claimed, against all reason, that we must have
requested that very card. It took half an hour of arguing back and
forth, before we were able to talk to a manager who offered us a curt
apology and, of all things, a 5 percent discount on our next order!
››
A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
