Yes it's sad to lose the Pope, but he was just a few months younger than my Mama. Maybe it was the fact that she'd suffered from Alzheimers for several years, but when she went, we were joyful that she'd finally found peace. The funeral home on the night of her wake was a raucous affair. It's a good thing no other families were there that night, they certainly would not have understood. Mama was the center of attention, as she loved to be, and we were all happy for her. Of course we were sad she was no longer with us, but that was for ourselves, not for her.
I would imagine that the Pope's friends feel like that tonight. They know he was ready to go, and they hate losing a friend, but they're celebrating his life and their friendship with him.
I think that's a good way to be! I haven't had to attend that many funerals, but I know I felt differently at my great-grandmothers' funerals - especially the one I'd actually known - than at my uncle's, because they'd had good long lives and he hadn't.
I was too young when my brother died to know anything. In fact I've recently begun feeling actual loss when thinking about him. One of the cds I was given for Christmas has a song that could be about him, from the heart defect to the number of days he lived. I can't stop listening to that song. I hear about my little brothers and think "Sam would have been doing such-and-such" and feeling cheated that I didn't really get to know him. Is that weird, to feel almost fresh loss now - 13 years later?
Yes, the moment we walked into the funeral parlor, we could hear the laughter and lively conversation...and the cocktail party hadn't even started yet! The funeral was Anglican, which is, I believe, the closest denomination to Catholicism.
Prayers for the Pope, I thought him a good man.
Thank you for your kind words.