People in their 60s and 70s heard stories from their parents, aunts and uncles about their baby siblings born at home, and in the case of stillborn or infant deaths, being laid out and mourned at home, in the "parlor"-- what we would call the "front room" or "living room."
It kinda sad how many people either forgot or were unaware of the most basic and ‘normal’ ‘funeral’ things ‘we’ did not 100 years ago.
A 5 min. search on Google would likely blow many minds.
To do a wake like this sure wouldn’t be “playing” with the body, though, no more than showing it in a funeral home would be. Is that just Colmes’ idea?
And I can understand how some people might want a chance to say good bye to the body. When my own father passed, I was not there and I asked the hospital to let me say good bye to his body, which I did where it had been placed in a supply closet awaiting the funeral director. Not fancy, but it sufficed. Again that isn’t playing with it any more than it would be in a funeral home. I can see how Santorum would have been well nigh furious.