When I was young I had relatives of my Great grandfather’s generation who would take pictures of the dead laid out at the funeral home. I never understood why they would want that picture but the older people never questioned it.
A woman I used to work with got a lot of grief from her family when she had her dead brother photoshopped into a recent family photo.
People are kinda weird about death. By “people”, I mean all of us. My take, basically, is that they are great for the garden*.
*See what I mean? ;-)
They did it because of the distances involved. There is no way someone from the other side of the state could make it home in time for the wake. This gave sons and daughters a chance to see what gramma looked like on her last days.
Hard to believe, but that’s the reason.