Funeral thoughts
Oct. 11th, 2006 07:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranI went to the funeral of an old family friend today. It was one of those uplifting funerals, where the mood is as much bouyant as it is sad, because of the impact of the person on those people who attended it.
To say he was a "character" would be an understatement bordering on insult. "Force of nature" would be a better description. He was one of those people who make you wonder if he wasn't already someone or something interesting before he was born. In the old Chinese stories, he would turn out to be a visiting spirit or an incarnation of someone unusual. A linguist, a teacher, a musician, a boatbuilder, an actor, a cook. He was all those things, but most of all, he had that rare combination of cerebral and social intelligence. He was never shy of pointing out your mistakes, but somehow he did it in a way that was endearing rather than demeaning. And he was just as keen on pointing out his own mistakes and flaws.
He recorded two CDs of piano music just before he died and I have a copy at home now. He only just managed to get them done. It was uplifting too, that he managed to complete them after years of procrastination. At the end of the service, they played a track from one of the CDs and lifted the cover from a large rectangular object at the front of the chapel to reveal not a coffin, but a piano. (Okay, so I didn't really think it was a coffin, but the humour still counts.)
We left the wake that day, not as mourners but as guests.
To say he was a "character" would be an understatement bordering on insult. "Force of nature" would be a better description. He was one of those people who make you wonder if he wasn't already someone or something interesting before he was born. In the old Chinese stories, he would turn out to be a visiting spirit or an incarnation of someone unusual. A linguist, a teacher, a musician, a boatbuilder, an actor, a cook. He was all those things, but most of all, he had that rare combination of cerebral and social intelligence. He was never shy of pointing out your mistakes, but somehow he did it in a way that was endearing rather than demeaning. And he was just as keen on pointing out his own mistakes and flaws.
He recorded two CDs of piano music just before he died and I have a copy at home now. He only just managed to get them done. It was uplifting too, that he managed to complete them after years of procrastination. At the end of the service, they played a track from one of the CDs and lifted the cover from a large rectangular object at the front of the chapel to reveal not a coffin, but a piano. (Okay, so I didn't really think it was a coffin, but the humour still counts.)
We left the wake that day, not as mourners but as guests.
