宝贝写爷爷的葬礼

几天前承懿问我：“妈咪，我写一篇essay　about爷爷的funeral，好吗？算是　holiday　homework。”　难得他自动请缨，　我那会说不？当然点头称好。

星期一下午，　他花了一个多小时写了下面这篇。

记下来。14岁的承懿对爷爷葬礼的记忆和感想。

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MY GRANDPA’S FUNERAL

So all of a sudden I was roused from my sleep at 5am in the morning. My mother told me:” Sam, your grandfather just passed away. We’re attending his funeral now.” Well I guess I was stunned because I showed no emotion at all. I just continued to get myself ready to attend something sorrowful. I went down and greeted my dad. I gave him a hug to ensure him although he didn’t have a dad anymore I still had him.

We then embarked on our journey back to my father’s hometown. I decided to sleep through the whole ride and put all the sad thoughts behind. Soon, we arrived at my dad’s hometown. We had a brief breakfast- vegetarian noodles and headed towards my grandfather’s house.

As I stepped down from the car, I could hear people reciting holy chants to a bed, covered with a piece of holy cloth and a blanket. I guess that my grandfather was somewhere in there. I sat down beside my relatives and a bunch of other old folks that I didn’t recognize at all. I sat there praying for my dead ancestor for a consecutive 2 hours. My legs ache and I was really impatient, since I just couldn’t stop moving around! (For your information, my grandfather is 75 years old, but in Chinese tradition you have to add 3 to the age, so in Chinese terms he’s 78.)

My lunch? Well, it was just a bun and a mug of Milo. (Is that breakfast or lunch?)

I then continued to pray and stop for the next 4 hours, until 5pm. We had to perform a little ritual so that my grandfather would be lifted into the coffin. Yep, he’s a dead man now.

We then had dinner. More relatives started to arrive in the evening. We were about to start our first big, exhausting praying ritual.  I was the eldest grandson, so I got to kneel at the front, beside my dad and my uncle.

We chanted for 2 hours straight. I desperately needed a drink of water to quench my thirst, but from where I was, I wouldn’t get one drop of it. I had to bear the tiresomeness of kneeling, especially when I have some backbone problems, so it was a painful 2 hours for me.

At last, the pain was finally over and it was kind of worth it, because I had to do it for my grandfather. As the eldest grandson, I couldn’t set a bad example to those younger than me in my generation. I grabbed some refreshments from a table and shoved them down my mouth hungrily. I never realized how much I depleted my energy today.

I took a shower and went to bed. The next day, I woke up to find several packs of noodles on the dining table. I quickly chowed down and went to do some of my homework upstairs. I typed furiously, to settle everything in school when I wasn’t around. The worst thing was that I had to retake a science test next Monday. AGH! THE BOREDOM AND FRUSTATION!

Well, I did the same big rituals except this time there were 2, one at 2pm and one at 8pm. When the day was over, I could barely move all my leg from all the kneeling. It was as if somebody stuck a thousand pins in them, and I assure you, that sensation is very painful. Also, I had to wipe the water from the coffin’s outside every few minutes, because there was dry ice to preserve my grandfather from rotting inside the coffin, like a piece of meat in a fridge.

On the last day of the funeral, I had to wake up very early. My grandfather was going to be sent to a cremation center to be burnt, so that all his ashes would be then crushed into a pot and kept there forever. (I don’t even know if that’s a good way of managing corpses!)

Well, there was an old nun to manage the final ritual. She asked my father, my uncle and I to do hold some praying stuff (In Chinese it’s called 祭品) and we had to present it to our grandfather (who may or may not receive in heaven, I don’t know) as a blessing. Then all the other people attended to do the same. There was some aunties and uncles, even my mum’s family attended to pay their final respects!

We then sent my grandpa on his final journey. His coffin was lifted onto a car and we had to walk behind him. We had to walk under the hot sun for a kilometer. We stopped at a junction and took a small bus all the way to the cremation site. We then did a small ritual, by placing dry wood/tinder on his coffin. We then had to jump over a flaming pot of fire with several burning papers (I have seriously no idea why we do that.). He was then escorted into the furnace and the furnace doors shut as the fire started to burn. We then had lunch and went back home. Some of my relatives departed after having a few snacks like this giant cake (发糕). I then watched 2 movies with my cousins (The Percy Jackson series), and then I had dinner and I called it a day.

On the last day (A Saturday), we went to collect the ashes. Everyone there put a part of whatever was left of my grandpa into a green urn (just like my grandpa on my mother’s side) and then he was put into a hole where we would come and visit him if we needed to. We then left after having lunch.

Now both of my grandpas are gone. I should appreciate the time that I still can spend with my grandmas, before they depart into heaven and reunite with their husbands. Goodbye, grandpa. I’ll miss you.