Not unexpected, as the lady was near 90, but still.
The funeral was today, at 1 PM, at Vienna's famed Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery.) You might remember the place if you've seen the classic film The Third Man; the movie opens with a scene shot in Zentralfriedhof.
B's parents and us drove out. The first part of the service was held here:
This is a beautiful Art Nouveau building, inside and out. Within a small room in this building was the casket, numerous floral displays sent by friends and family, and not nearly enough chairs---maybe 25---for the 75 or so people who came to pay their respects. So we standees milled around at the back.
The casket was up front, a few of the floral displays were also up front on stands, but the rest of them were placed on the floor opposite the chairs where (in my opinion) there should have been more chairs instead of flowers.
We went in and expressed our condolences to M's father and her. Of course he didn't know who the hell I was---we'd never met---but somebody explained. He seemed in decent spirits, all things considered. But M is a doctor and B said: "She probably fixed him up with the appropriate pill beforehand."
The service started. The family is Catholic so first a priest marched in, followed by an acolyte carrying a cross on a pole. The acolyte stood behind the priest, holding the cross. Eight guys came in and stood behind the acolyte---the choir. They sang a song I didn't recognize, but sang it pretty well, then they bowed to the casket and walked out.
Then the priest began his religious jibber-jabber. Ordinarily B interprets these things for me but it was inappropriate at a funeral, and besides, growing up Catholic I've heard all their bullshit I care to hear, in English, German, or Klingon. B later told me 90% of everything the guy said was "Catholic propaganda," which I don't doubt.
Finally that ended, and the choir filed in again and sang another song, bowed, and left.
Then the priest and the acolyte filed out and the pallbearers came in. They were dressed identically in gray robes that reached to their knees, with one of those "flaps" that hangs from the shoulders like what you see on a navy uniform, only bigger. They also wore gray matching hats.
These guys removed the flowers from the altar and took them out to the hearse. Then they came back in and lifted the casket to their shoulders and marched out, followed by M and her father and then the rest of us.
It was raining (of course) so everyone popped their umbrellas and followed the hearse on foot as it slowly drove toward the grave site, maybe a kilometer away through the massive cemetery. I wish I'd taken my camera--the sight of all these umbrellas ahead of me, as we walked through this beautiful cemetery along the tree-lined path, was really quite beautiful, despite the sad circumstances.
Finally we got to the grave site. More jibber-jabber from the priest, then he stepped aside so everyone could walk up to the grave and dump a small scoop of dirt into it. Interesting the way this works: there's a guy standing there at the foot of the grave. You walk up and he presents you with the scoop of dirt. You give him a 1 Euro coin, as it's traditional to tip this guy for handing you the scoop. Then you dump the dirt into the grave and the next person does the same, and so on.
Final step is one last expression of condolences to the family before you leave.
In previous visits, I've meant to visit Zentralfriedhof on my own and take a lot of pics. This visit, I'm going to do it. It's really a magical place, this cemetery, especially during a summer rain.
Look it up on the Web and see for yourself..
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And now for something completely different:
It's "It's A Wonderful Life" reconsidered, with Hugh Laurie in the role of the George Bailey character----only he's not playing George Bailey, he's playing Rupert fuckin' Murdoch. See what happens to that asshole Rupert at the end...
