Yet another day here I hope I don't have too many of.
Today was Jamie's funeral. As I stood and looked at the small white box it suddenly hit me that the last funeral I was at was also that of a child, in London
It was all in Shangann (local language) and the only parts I got were the very loud AMENs that occasionally broke up the very fervent preacher.
So when the preacher was finished what felt to me like a heartless talk (but as I didn't understand a word he said I could be wrong) the coffins were opened for the mourners to go and look at......
Today I have seen a dead baby and the dead child of someone I never knew. Just felt bizarre.
The coffin was then carried to the end of the grave, the other funeral went to their grave, but both groups keep singing together across the graveyard, and there and then Jamie's body was put into the ground and covered in by the father and other helpers.
What I also find sad is that I am sure his wife/Jamies mother was the mound beside his. She died a month ago. So he stood alone looking at what should have been a happy family with a 1 month old but is now a man alone with nothing really.
Today there was very little emotion, very little personal about the funeral. Men don't cry here, or if they do it's for a very short time because you have to keep finding a way to survive. At least the body was found and he was able to bury his son properly.
A life that I knew for a very short time, but had the chance to love and care for along with others, is gone. Here death is too much a part of life. People dying is never easy and sometimes hard to understand but I do struggle so much more with the death of a child. In the time it has taken me to write this and you to read, so may more children have died though out the world. I don't think I will ever be ok on children dying.
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