Funerals

My mother was crying when she called me on the phone tonight. She needed someone to talk to, she said.

In the car on the way home, I was thinking about funeral processions. You know, every time I see one, what I do is, I scan the mourners. It's like instinct. I search their faces. I look for someone crying. I wonder, always, if the people are sad to see the person go. I wonder if the dead person was loved.

I have never seen anyone crying, ever. I don't know what to think about that. Ice says that maybe they just won't let people see them cry, that grief is a personal thing. Or that maybe, they are just saving their tears for the funeral.

I hope so.

But anyway,that just occurred to me on my way home.