Crying at a Wake

My weekend was pretty uneventful.  I guess that’s good every now and then but definitely different that what I usually do.  I did attend a wake service for the grandmother of a close friend of mine.  I never met the woman but friend duty calls and you have to make an appearance.  As I was walking through the line, shaking hands with people I’ve never met and people that I sure are wondering what I’m doing there I came across a young lady (late 20’s) that was crying uncontrollably.  After I got through the line and during a “down” time my friend came over to chat and I asked if the young lady was as close as he was to his grandmother.  Get this.  She’s a girlfriend of his brothers and not while they’ve been together for about six years, my friend tells me that she only met the grandmother three times.  I couldn’t believe it.  If you looked at this girl you would have believed that her mother just died.  Ridiculous!

I’m not totally shocked but I am a bit appalled.  I’ve been through this before and one time had the person I brought break down like a mental patient when they barely knew the deceased.  When I was in high school, a friend of mine’s father committed suicide.  My girlfriend and I attended the wake, funeral and the after party and my girlfriend had the waterworks and hysteria for the entire thing.  It was not only embarrassing but also led to a break-up.  At one point when I was outside with her and had to leave her by herself because she was so ridiculous.

My question is why are there people like this?  I can see if you were close and you’re really going to miss the person but if you had very little contact or none at all with the deceased I think it’s time to turn off the waterworks.  Are they looking for attention?  Does it bring up memories of past funerals and wakes they’ve been to?  Whatever the case, shut up and stop crying, you’re embarrassing me and yourself.  Maybe it’s me but if you’re crying at a funeral and you’ve had less than six conversations with the deceased, look yourself in the mirror and laugh because that’s what we’re going to do…