Neanderpundit

I’m going to ask for as much help as anyone can give me on this, because this idea, I think is bigger than me.

I think in every community a list could be made and given to local funeral homes, of men (and women, if they desire) to do this thing. Churches would be a good place to start. Each community would have one person capable of making arrangements, and that person would call to find out who is available when. Lots of people might only be available weekends. Some might be retired and only too willing to help during the week.

No, I don’t have a catchy name. I was looking to see if Egyptians had any special name for palbearers, since they are most famous for funerals, but I could find no such information. I welcome sugestions.

I like to think of this being groups of six men who go to a funeral home to meet and practice, say, once a month. And drill, so they walk in union, left and right feet hitting the ground at the same time. Subtle and accurate enough that people say,”Wasn’t it nice that uncle Ted was carried by such nice and professional men?” I think someone with that training, a marine or an infantryman, should belong to each group to help with the training. Participants could be drawn from church groups, military units, fire/police departments. I think everyone needs to have a black suit that fits. Matching black ties. Spitshined shoes. Don’t need to be expensive, just dignified.

Comments/suggestions please, by all means.

I have been rolling this around in my head for a while, and the untimely and horribly premature death of Carla Spires has sort of brought this to a head.

I have been called upon to be a pallbearer at a fairly large number of funerals, some of people I didn’t particularly know well. I have seen that a lot of the time, people die without enough people to do the job. I have been thinking of starting a little organization, of groups of men across America, who will volunteer to bear pall for those who don’t have anyone else to do so, for those who have such small families that they cannot gather enough people to bear pall or for those with sufficient grief that the additional responsibility at that time is just too much.

This would be voluntary, and the men who do this must be drilled like a precision rifle team, and they must do their job with dignity and without comment.

Any thoughts, folks? Would you join such a group? Would you like to train such a group? No money should ever change hands. No comment means you carry the bodies of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson with the same dignity as Carla Spears- or your dad. I want to do this, I want this idea to catch fire. I want people to do this for others. It’s a worthy mission, I think.

Last night, a woman I’ve been working with- well, not exactly with, but in the same area, was murdered , allegedly by her boyfriend.

She was a good worker. She conscientiously did her job, which was changing filters on a huge herd of industrial machines. Yesterday, she put a new filter on the robot control I’m working on. Today, she’s dead.

Carla was a diminutive blond, happy, nice to be around. I got to know her for about a month. I never heard her have a bad word about anyone. She showed her age but when she was a little younger she must have been an absolute knockout.

May God hold her in the hollow of his mighty hand. Thanks for touching my life, Carla.