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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Henry: No Funeral Planned? Really?

When I was growing up, funerals in my hometown were always the same. People would come to the family home with casserole dishes and offer condolences. The next day, many of those same people would arrive at the mortuary to pay their respects by participating in the funeral. I don't know how many times growing up I'd answer the phone at our house only to be greeted on the other end of the line by our local undertaker, Ron Hodge, asking if my father was available to be a pallbearer for someone we knew. I thought that was "just the way it was" and, at the time, the way it would always be. But, as I got older, those phone calls from Mr. Hodge to my father slowed and all but stopped. Friends and family were still dying but all that remained to mark their life was an obituary in the paper with one added line: "No funeral services are planned"/Henry Johnston, Moscow-Pullman Daily News. More here.

Question: What do you want done for your funeral?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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