The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76547 Message #1360730
Posted By: Jerry Rasmussen
18-Dec-04 - 05:56 PM
Thread Name: BS: Mourn Death/Celebrate Life
Subject: RE: BS: Mourn Death/Celebrate Life
Today, the Messengers sang at the wake for Frankie's son-in-law Tyrone. His wife asked for songs with energy, so that's what we gave her. After we sang for twenty minutes, the trombone band from the local House Of Prayer church played gut-bucket New Orleans street jazz/gospel non-stop for a half an hour. Tyrone used to play trombone in the band. The House Of Prayer was started in New Orleans by Daddy G, and when they worship, they take the paint off the walls. I had a crazy night a couple of years ago, singing and playing electric guitar, doing gospel with a trombone section. They don't let a lot of moaning go on, and Tyrone's wife Michelle was on her feet singing lustily along with them. Tyrone was in an open casket, soaking it all in, I think.
The eulogy really got me thinking. The question was, "what do you do with the hyphen?" The minister pointed out that Tyrone's life was summed up with the years he was alive, from 1956-2004. She wanted to talk about what he did during the hyphen. Never heard that idea before, but I liked it. Tyrone lived a very full hyphen, and while there was some crying and mourning going on, there was also a lot of celebrating this life, and Eternal life.
I know that Tyrone was pleased at the good time, the rocking music and the celebrating that went on. We had a good time celebrating his life.
Jerry