A Funeral to Remember
Today, I attended my first funeral, that of my uncle Owen who passed on June 30th---and boy, was it a funeral to remember.
Number one, there was a whole bunch of Jamaicans in one space, so u know something is bound to happen. Anyway, there's a lot of bitter blood between my family and uncle Owen's widow's family. His widow, Sharon, called all of the shots for the funeral arrangements, down to the location of the funeral and cremation preperation. Not to mention the fact that Sharon's a crackhead. When we got to the funeral house, my mom, my brother and I met up with immediate family members. Once the viewing started and Owen's widow's family came, though, all hell broke loose.
Sharon "acted" very sweet to my grandmother and aunts, giving her condoloences, but my family wasnt buying it because she is going to profit from his death. How? In the form of a life insurance policy worth $50,000, which Owen's biological son, Sharon's stepson, paid for. My family doesnt want to cause a scene with her or her family, so everyone restrained themselves accordingly---until eulogy time. Ha. Ur gonna love this.
First of, Sharon's sister, Jade, read off the obituary, which was very one sided. Basically, Sharon had it written up so that one would only think Owen had one family-his wife, Sharon's (they had one kid together, also, but she had 4 kids who werent his birth kids). She only put pics of his stepkids in it, mentioned Owen's involvement in his stepkids' lives, and then at the end of it, put 1 sentence mentioning that he was survived by 5 sisters and 4 brothers. The thing that pissed me off was that there was no mention of his mom, my grandmother.
Now, for eulogy time: Jade looked like a hooker, prancing up to the podium, crying about how much Owen was such a great brother-in-law, blah blah blah. Sharon's aunt went up there, also praising Owen, and so did a friend of Sharon. Then, my aunt Colleen went up. Now mind you, up until this point, only Sharon's family has spoken about Owen. Colleen goes up there, and she says to all of the people, "For those of you that dont know, Owen does have 5 sisters and 4 brothers, and we loved him very much and cared for him. Many of you might not even have known he has a big family both here and Jamaica, but he does, and we cared very deeply for him and will miss him." I was soooooooo happy, and so was the rest of our family. Colleen made it known that it wasnt only Owen's widow's family that cared for him, and gave us some recognition! Colleen is one of my aunts whom will let u know the deal straight up, and she sure did stand up for us. It was also quite comical. I couldnt help but smirk at her amazing spiel.
Something that wasnt comical at all, actually, quite annoying and disgusting, was Sharon's daughter, Owen's stepdaughter, Sparkle, having a breakdown at the funeral. She started to hysterically cry when the service was beginning....and she didnt stop until afterwards. I mean, I'm talking about hysterics! Not even during a dance portion did she shut up. It was so ridiculous to the point that u would think she was faking it. Ok, I mean, maybe she did mourn him (and her and her mother's family rightfully should because Owen was good to his wife's family), but just the way she was acting was just out of control. My mom got so annoyed that she said (loud enough for people to hear), "Why doesnt she shut up?!" My other aunts just gave piercing, annoyed glances. Hahahahaha. My mom and aunts are crazy.
After the funeral concluded, everyone went outside, and my family huddled together while Sharon's family did the same. We didnt care much for them after the service. It was nice to see, however, Owen's biological kids, my cousins, get hugs and what seemed to be genuine condolences, from Sharon's kids. Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, I wasnt close to my uncle, actually, hardly knew him, but I did recognize him in the coffin. That was the first time I had actually touched a dead person, and it was real. He felt so stiff. But I paid my respects, and will mourn him because those who knew him better than I, especially my grandmom, aunts and mom, will never forget.