Such rites honor the life of the deceased member…

Such rites honor the life of the deceased member, assist surviving members with grieving, and provide a way to integrate the deceased member's life into the stories that link him or her to the ongoing life of the family, the tribe, or the religious community.

— from The Landing (Death) · Family Wealth: Keeping It In the Family: How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Hu

In the book

That is why our last words to one another carry such indelible weight, and why I am choosing mine to you with care. Our rituals around the landing can look almost theatrical from the outside, but they do a serious and necessary work — they honor the one who has gone, they carry the grievers through, and they weave a finished life into the ongoing story of the family. I have seen people meet the end with astonishing grace: one man, dying, stood in a room full of the people who loved him and watched himself reflected in their eyes; another asked every mourner at his funeral to wear a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of Groucho glasses, so that grief and laughter would arrive in the same breath. — The Landing (Death)

Also belongs to

Related