Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Vianey's Funeral

As you all probably know, Sis. Vianey passed away after months of suffering. We went to the hospital Saturday morning to see her and say our last goodbyes. On Sunday we got the call that she had passed away. Monday we had a small service at her house for friends and family. Tuesday we had the funeral at the church. 
This was me and Nicole's first Christian funeral in Mexico - usually when someone in the church dies, the family swoops in and takes over and everything is done in the Catholic way. We were very pleased when Sis. Vianey's family chose to honor her wishes of having her funeral in the church. None of the Catholic nonsense. No chanting and wailing over the body, no sprinkling it with water, no money left in the hand of the deceased to get them past the Jordan River and buy them food and clothes in the next life. 

This funeral honored Sis. Vianey and it honored the Lord. 

Hno. Baltazar reading her obituary


The flowers from the younger Wakefield family

The flowers from the Elder Wakefield family


The casket was opened so the family could say their last goodbyes
After the funeral, we drove about 14,000 miles out to the middle of nowhere, where there was a cemetery. It started out as an ordinary trip, but then Elissa had a diaper blow-out and I got to witness how to deal with a terrible explosion in a moving car. 



We had a little service around the casket then we watched as the casket was lowered into the ground. The men started shoveling dirt on to the casket - it is the creepiest sound - and a few people started wailing and crying. It was sad. 

My precious Gramma


Elder Wakefield saying some last words
Beautiful flowers - all the flowers that were given to the family were used to cover the grave. That is the tradition here. 

~Bethany~

2 comments:

Mary Frances said...

Wow, beautiful with all those flowers!!! I'm happy to hear that this sister got her wishes fulfilled!!!

Jennifer Connell said...

Wow - Sad, but beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

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