attachment to Family Treasures

Well, I finally finished cataloging all the Funeral Book of my great, great grandma! There were 27 obituaries of family members close to her; there was also the upcoming newspaper announcement of a granddaughters wedding - and then a newspaper account of that wedding ... in a funeral book, go figure. There was also the announcement of a birth, I haven't figured out the genealogical lines of this? As I commented in the earlier article, this book is incredible .. there is a listing of everyone who was present at the funeral, a complete listing of everyone that gave flowers. Now the neat thing about all these lists, is that except for a couple of pages where people signed their names, these lists are in the same beautiful handwriting, for example: the list of those coming to visitation is in their own handwriting, but the list of those at the funeral, which is a lot longer - completely opposite how things happen today, is in the same handwriting. Perhaps this means that there was someone making the list as people appeared?! There are some pictures of a favorite grandson in his military uniform, the ship he was on, and a handwritten post card by him back to my great grandma who inherited the book. There are some other handwritten notes, most of them barely legible anymore. I'm further convinced that this book was merely passed on to my grandma, and no other notations made because there are no obits of my great grandma or great grandpa; the only thing about my great grandma was
the original railroad health insurance card she had and also her original social security card - both of which are in excellent condition. In the earlier article I mentioned the unusual pages titled: 'MOTOR CARS DONATED', so now that I'm done cataloging the book I'd like to record the other pages here: a couple of 'poem' pages spread throughout; a MUSIC page; IN MEMORY OF page; FAMILY RECORD page; SERVICES & OFFICIATING on the same page; SERMON NOTES, which is blank; a page with the BEARERS, the casket bears names and towns where they lived!; FINAL RESTING PLACE page, including date,hour and year; REALTIVES attending, this page is full; FRIENDS WHO CALLED, these are five pages where people signed; FLOWERS, six pages filled with names; then the MOTOR CAR pages; then NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS pages; concluding with pages of poems.

I am really impressed with what a big, communal event a funeral was; and in many ways I am saddened by the demise of experience. Hardly anyone likes to view a dead body, but there are so many psychological, communal and family benefits to a funeral.
I've also noted that fewer and fewer people will drive their cars to the side of the road as a funeral passes by - I think this says a lot about the demise of our social culture. I try to go to the side of the road, to turn my lights on, when a funeral passes by, if I can't I at least turn my lights on to acknowledge the passing.