Mud Pies and Caskets

A topic to ponder: write a one paragraph response where you discuss you first experience at a funeral, making sure to detail how other mouners reacted and your own initial thoughts, and stating what misconceptions you had about death before or after that initial funeral experience. 

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Prior to age 11, I was a child who lived with passion and unbreakable joy. Anyone could see that I was a happy child who loved to play dress up and make mud pies in the enchanted ‘mini’ forest in my backyard. Most of my waking hours were spent with my sisters in the great outdoors filled with exploration, giggles, and smiles. That childlike happiness was turned down a notched – not vanished – when I attended my great grandmother’s funeral. The concept and idea of death was foreign to me. Mother told me to wear nice church clothes for her grandmother’s funeral. There, I saw many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and my mother crying. I felt guilty because I did not cry or miss my great-grandmother due to the fact that I barely knew her. At that funeral, my father pressed my back to prompt me to approach the casket down the ancient aisle at the church. The walk seemed like a mile. Then suddenly, I saw death. I saw my great-grandmother’s body, and finally got the concept of death. Death meant great grandma died and left her now-lifeless body and will not come back for a long time. Death also took away her ability to make her eyes sparkle and her friendly and generous nature warm anyone’s heart when she greeted them. Now, her body laid in the coffin was a stark contrast of what I knew her to be, for now she had an unnatural, sickly, pale skin color and her rosy cheeks and smile were no longer visible. I left the funeral distressed and heartbroken that I had to learn the cold, hard fact of life: there is a time to be born and a time to die.