funny funeral moments

[barkley]

losing a loved one is a terrible experience and everyone has a different means of dealing with it, sometimes in the heat of the moment someone will say something or do something that in hindsight is just funny (and it's nice when the remaining family can look back and laugh about it)-i'll share one:

a friends grandmother passed away. at the funeral service one of the family members gets up and is talking about the special times grandma and grandpa spent together, and how one of their greatest joys was to listen to country and western music together...and in memory of that the service will end with a the playing of a song that grandpa chose as one of their favorites...family member walks over to a boom box and hits the play button (eager to hear cuz in all the planning they forgot to ask grandpa which song he chose)...

the service ends to "you picked a fine time to leave me lucile"....

 

[Christine]

I think I've told this story before on the DIS, but:

I went to a funeral of a co-worker. I didn't know him that well but my boss really wanted everyone there, so we all went. It was a very small service and there was an organ player at the service and she had this cheap little, awful sounding organ. She played morose songs through most of the service.

Anyway, the speakers get up and one says, "now, in honor of Bob, I'd like to have his favorite song played." The organist starts playing "Hey Jude." OMG, it was so awful. I was sitting their aghast and I let out this little *snort*. My co-worker sitting next to me, then has her own gasp/chuckle, and the guy in front of me (another co-worker) is BEET RED trying to hold in his laughter. I finally couldn't contain it, had to get up and leave during the song, go into the rest room and bust out laughing. It was one of the most insane moments I've ever had.

Ever since then, when we have uncontrollable fits of laughter, my friend and I refer to them as "I had a funeral moment."

 

[NMAmy]

the service ends to "you picked a fine time to leave me lucile"....

Oh, that's wonderful. I may have them play that at my funeral now.

My cousin told a story at my grandfather's funeral that had the entire group laughing hysterically. Apparently, when they were young, my grandfather let his brother drive the golf cart at the golf course (and he wasn't old enough) and he ran over the cousin telling the story with the golf cart. My grandfather was well known for letting his grandkids do stuff and then swearing us to secrecy. My cousin was telling the story and my aunt involuntarily said, "He did WHAT??" and the entire crowd lost it. My cousin said, "Well, Pa DID tell us not to tell anyone but I figured it would be ok to tell it now."

 

[stinkerbelle]

awwww....poor grandpa!

I actually attended my grandmother's funeral yesterday (3 weeks shy of her 95th birthday bless her heart)....my DH served as a pallbearer (as well as my brother). We were getting ready to leave the funeral home for the church, and the funeral director starts calling up people to pay their last respects.

He calls all the pallbearers up...however he mispronounces one of the pallbearers names.

instead of "connell" it's "Cornell"

I look up when I hear this and I see my brother and my DH crack smiles and then attempt to keep their faces straight...(this guy isn't very well liked in my family...it's one of my cousin's husbands)

it was a 'you had to be there" moment

but the entire ride back home after the funeral, DH just kept saying "Cornell" and laughing to himself. (I guess the funeral director also called him 'Carnell" a couple of times)

 

[4cruisin]

This is a "you had to be there" story but here goes:

My Godmother passed away very unexpectedly 6 weeks before my mom did. My mom was very ill at the time and we knew the end was near for her so I was very sad anyway. My dsis and I are at my gdmthrs service at the funeral home listening to the Priest give a eulogy. Now this is the same funeral home and same Priest that will be responsible for my mother's service. My gdmthr only had 1 son and dil so all the Priest had to remember was 2 names. I love the Priest but he does not speak very clearly (mumbles) and always seems like he'd rather be somewhere else.

So, for the eulogy, he got everything wrong about my gdmthr; where she worked, how religious she was (she wasn't) and then even messed up her son and dil names . Now at this point in the service I had been crying softly because I knew that the next wake and funeral I would be attending would be my mom's, but I just lost it when the Priest messed up the 2 names because I figured if he couldn't get 2 names right, there was no way he was going to remember all 5 of us at my mom's service.

My sister is trying to hold it together and keep me from losing it completely. After the service, the Priest came over to see if I was ok. My dsis and I had to hurry out to the car so people wouldn't think I was crazy for crying/laughing at the same time.

BTW, at my mom's funeral 6 weeks later, dsis and I held our breath when it came time for Fr. Mumbles to mention all 5 names.....he manged to do it without missing a beat.

 

[Sandy V.]

My cousin told a story at my grandfather's funeral that had the entire group laughing hysterically. Apparently, when they were young, my grandfather let his brother drive the golf cart at the golf course (and he wasn't old enough) and he ran over the cousin telling the story with the golf cart. My grandfather was well known for letting his grandkids do stuff and then swearing us to secrecy. My cousin was telling the story and my aunt involuntarily said, "He did WHAT??" and the entire crowd lost it. My cousin said, "Well, Pa DID tell us not to tell anyone but I figured it would be ok to tell it now."

I just cracked up at this one. Thank you for sharing.

 

[sleepyone]

My dd was supposed to spend a weekend with her grandma. It had been planned for a very long time and dd reminded us about it every day until the date came. Grandpa & Grandma had to go to a funeral of a co-worker and we were going to change the date of dd's sleep-over with Grandma but, there were no other weekends that it would be possible for a while. I let dd go with my parents to the funeral. She had been to several (Baptist) funerals and was really well behaved at them.

This may sound horrible to you but, dd was only about 4 or 5 at the time. It was a Catholic funeral and, dd whispers to Grandma, "Why is the old man (priest?) following around all the little boys (boys with candles?)?"

 

[illini]

My dad died when I was 14 ( not funny at all of course)
At the visitation there was an open casket.My best friend wanted to know why his legs had been cut off.???? For some reason I found this hilarious because of course his legs were still there. Unfortunately I have a laugh that really carries. To this day my mom still talks about it.
I guess it was just the stress of it all..................

 

[TTFN]

My favorite funeral story: My brother's FIL passed away years ago. FIL was about 5'6" tall and almost as big around as he was tall. My brother is about 6'2', and pretty thin. My sister was given the job of getting FIL's suit from the closet and to the funeral home, which she did. When my brother went to get dressed for the funeral, his suit was gone and the suit that was there was way too short and way too big around. My sister had taken brother's suit by mistake! Of course, he didn't want to get the suit back, so he ran out and bought another. All thru the service we kept giggling about what the funeral director must have thought trying to get FIL into that suit. After the funeral my SIL said "When Dad gets to heaven Mom's gonna tell him he let the tailor make the pants too long again!"

 

[Christine]

My dad died when I was 14 ( not funny at all of course)
At the visitation there was an open casket.My best friend wanted to know why his legs had been cut off.???? For some reason I found this hilarious because of course his legs were still there. Unfortunately I have a laugh that really carries. To this day my mom still talks about it.
I guess it was just the stress of it all..................

Yep. Stress. I think that is exactly why there is so many "funny" funeral moments. Most people are really stressed/worked up and funerals and "busting out laughing" is a response to that. It really doesn't take much to cause that reaction during a stressful situation.

 

[stinkerbelle]

Most people are really stressed/worked up and funerals and "busting out laughing" is a response to that. It really doesn't take much to cause that reaction during a stressful situation.

not even the 'stress' part...but you know? that's how I think our loved ones would want us to be...laughing...not crying. know what i mean?

 

[Beth76]

At my great-aunts funeral we got to see some distant family that don't see very often. Like my dad's crazy cousins. I was driving to the cemetary with my cousin, her DH and somehow one of these crazy cousins (that we barely know) just hops in the car with us. Ok fine. Well she talks the entire way and she's just wacky. Very nice, but wacky. So we get to the cemetary and it starts drizzling just a little. This wacky cousin got out an umbrella and starts inching very slowly towards the pastor who's speaking. She was making this very weird face like she wasn't sure if this was an appropriate thing to do or not. And I just lost it. It was so funny. I couldn't stop laughing. I was trying to hard to stifle my laughs that I only hope people thought I was sobbing.

 

[Forevryoung]

This past November my grandfather passed away and then exactly a week later, my roommates father passed away (not a good month in our apartment). Tomorrow would have been my Grandfather's 83rd birthday.

Funny things happened at both funerals but I'll tell the story closest to my heart:

The night before my grandfather's funeral, my mother's sister decided that she wanted to fill in the entire (and I mean entire) grave with dirt instead of the Jewish tradition to just do the first layer. So when it came time for the 6ft deep hole to be filled in, my mom, my dad (who was like another son to my grandfather), and my mom's two siblings got to work. It was a sight to see because as my mom says- give me a job to do and I'm just going to do it. They filled in the hole with ferver. I swear if you didnt know the people and you saw them you would have thought they wanted him deeper in the ground but they revered him. The grave diggers were standing there laughing at the four of them. At one point one of them walked over and told them to "fill in a little more dirt here" dude, they are doing your job! My dad even found a rake and smoothed it out at the end. It was rather funny to watch. and it was definitely out of place. My uncle's wife made the comment, "Your mom is thinking what an aerobic workout, your aunt is thinking my muscles are getting bigger and your uncle will have severe back pain later." Thats exactly what happened

My grandfather's brother is very eccentric and says the oddest things (we take his comments with a grain of salt). He and my grandfather didn't get along too well because of it. He walks into the funeral home and says to me and my sister, "Wow, I am surprised so many people showed up, he was such an obnoxious person" My sister and I had a good laugh through the tears about it.
Another comment he made:
Uncle Alan: "I still hear him yelling at me"
My mom: "What is he saying?"
Uncle Alan: "Shut up Alan and let me talk"

I miss popop

 

[4cruisin]

My grandfather's brother is very eccentric and says the oddest things (we take his comments with a grain of salt). He and my grandfather didn't get along too well because of it. He walks into the funeral home and says to me and my sister, "Wow, I am surprised so many people showed up, he was such an obnoxious person" My sister and I had a good laugh through the tears about it.
I miss popop

I'm sorry about your popop but your great uncle sounds like a hoot.

 

[JCJRSmith]

My father loved a good laugh, and he passed that on to his kids. Dad was one of eight kids, most of whom married and had a bunch of kids of their own (I am the youngest of seven myself). I have cousins I could pass on the street and not know who they were. Dad was also a very sweet, friendly man, and had many, many friends. So, at his funeral, there were a LOT of people.

My sister and I were up at the casket looking at Dad when she remarked that there were a lot of folks at the wake, many of whom we didn't recognize. I told her we should have passed out name tags at the door. At that moment we both looked down at my Dad and said, "Hi!! My name is Spence."

We both had to leave the room and my other sisters and my brother followed us to find out what was going on. We all had a huge laugh about it. Dad would have loved that one.

 

[shoes99]

My Mom was a devout Catholic, and she died in 2001 and we had a full Catholic Service. The collection envelopes were mailed weekly to Mr & Mrs....so when my Dad got the envelopes the next month, they were made out to MR.... only. My Dad said "don't you send any more money to those people".....Dad was too ill to go to Mass anyway, so I just kept donating in his name. When he died in January 2004 he was a "Paying customer" so we gave him the full Catholic Service but with a twist. He was an avid gardener, so the casket spread was made up by the local florist with fresh tomatoes, radishes, carrots and parsley. The pastor saw the vegetables, smiled a little, then used the "planting a seed" as the theme for the eulogy. When he started talking about tomatoes in church, my sisters and brother couldn't help giggling. You had to be there to experience the moment I guess.
Michele

 

[mickeyfan2]

At my Grandfather's funeral when we left the coffin in the chapel to go to the meal after; my nephew (3 year old great grandson) asked us, "So who is bringing Great Grandpa to the dinner." We all had to laugh.

 

[Maleficent13]

Probably another "had to be there" moment, but a little while ago DH's grandmother died. At the funeral, they had a "guest" minister (I have no idea why). This guy spoke like this:

"We HAVE come TOGETHER to SAY goodbye TO MISS Jane DOE. She was AN EXTRAORDINARY woman who TOUCHED everyone in HERE."

No point to the emphasis at all, and he was jumping like 10 octaves. Everytime he jumped, we all did too. My 7 yr old nephew finally looked at his dad and whispered, "Why is he talking like that?" We all just kinda lost it at that point.

 

[aprincessmom]

When my grandfather died, my cousins were young with the youngest being 3. They were all there because he lived with them and it seemed right and natural for them to be there. My grandfather wasn't a religious man but a local minister came and gave a small service at the funeral home before the burial. He did a wonderful job and we were all impressed with how he captured my grandfather's spirit.

He gave the eulogy in front of the casket. The youngest cousin was sitting on my lap during it. Throughout the minister said that "John" was well loved but had gone to another place to be with my grandmother, etc. The little one on my lap kept turning to me after he'd say something like that with a frown. She did this about 3 times and the fourth time it happened she said in her standard 3-year old's whisper (which can usually be heard about a block and a half away)..."Will someone tell him Grampy is right behind him in that big box! He hasn't gone anywhere...he's right there! Tell him to open it up if he doesn't believe us!"

We all just started laughing so hard we couldn't stop. It was perfect...just what my grandfather would have love!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

A friends grandmother was one of those people who was always late. They would joke with her about missing her own funeral. After grandmother passed on, they had her body cremated and had a simple grave side service. Well...I'm sure you can guess what's comming next. Not only was she late for her own funeral, she never made it. The funeral home never delivered grandma.