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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on August 29, 2010 at 7:47pm

Recently I gave the eulogy at my father's funeral. This was 10 days ago. Here's what I said, in a nutshell:

He had a good life. He lived 90 years, and was healthy for 85 or more of those years. He was able to stay in the small Mississippi river town where he was born, the town that was his Eden. He lived with the woman who he loved for 60 years, and provided for her until she became too much for any one person to care for, due to Alzheimers, and for him to care for, due to multiple diseases. Even then he had arranged for her to get loving care until the end of her life, and he never had to see her die. She was his best friend, and he spent time with her to the end. People liked him, and he knew that. He was clever and intelligent, and took pride in those qualities. He was rugged and healthy and good natured. He suffered greatly in his final years, with cancers, loss of dignity, loss of independence, a faliing mind and a failing body. But I think that, at any time of his life if he looked back and forward to this end, he would say he had a happy and good life. I will miss him, and I've grieved almost every time I visited him and spoke to him, for the past 3 or 4 years, but this loss now is more of a release. Even though "closure" is a cliche, that's what we all have, and we can leave him knowing that he lived well.

(note, no mention of religion, spirit, god, heaven, etc).

So anyway, that's what I said. I'll throw a couple of thoughts that did not get mentioned in the euolgy, into a separate discussion.