5 Funerals in 8 Days

We have just had 2 funerals today - we had one on Monday, and will have two more - Thursday and next Tuesday - so a total of 5 Funerals in 8 days.  The two funerals today were very difficult... A 54 year old woman, who had Cancer, and a 2 week old Baby.   As far as funerals go - they don't get much harder - for very different reasons.  

When you celebrate the funeral of one who is so close to your own age - it causes you to stop and think about your own mortality...
When you celebrate the funeral of a Baby - you ask all kinds of questions, and cry out to God - Why? How is this right? what is hoing on? It is just not fair!

When we bury a child - we realise that this is not the way it normally is,  a parent is not supposed to bury a child, flesh of your flesh, and bone from your bone.  There are words we have developed to describe "us" after the death of a loved one: 

• When a spouse dies - we are a widow or a widower, 
• When a parent dies - we are an orphan

Yet when a child dies - we have no word to associate with that situation. It is almost as if we cannot think of such a case. It is unthinkably hard to bury a child - so we have no word for it!

There is little to say - except perhaps acknowledging just that - one just lacks words to say.   My hope is that those who have lost a child, or a paren, or a brother / sister -  will remember also the bond of love that lies behind the pain they feel, the sorrow that comes with death.

Peace