That was a symbolic funeral for his wife, Lucille.
Several times in the series he has mentioned that his one weakness was that he couldn’t put her down after she turned.
He hated himself for that weakness, which is why he turned hard, to deal with the buried pain.
Kinda surprised me that he did it, really.
“Kinda surprised me that he did it, really.”
Not really... Lucille was practically split in half after head bashing that walker. He gained closure when he covered up the head and burnt it up. Should be interesting how he deals with Maggie as he didn’t seem that concerned given his “attitude” and that smile when he came back to Alexandria.