Hw 53

Precis:

It’s Saturday night in the Bronx and it’s booming with music and partying. Every Ghanaian person is at the funeral down the block for Gertrude Manye Ikol. She passed away just a few months ago and everyone is celebrating. Now I know what your thinking how heart less can these people be celebrating a woman’s death but in the Ghanaian culture death is horned in celebration. Unlike in the American culture where we sit solemn and reflect on the past life that was lost. The Ghanaian people celebrate the life that was just with them. These funerals are talked about like parties for every one to attend. They have an open bar and a dance floor that is open all night. The funerals are social gathering that are happening more and more all over the Bronx’s. A Ghanaian funeral is the second most expensive event in an Ghanaians life after their wedding.

DOLNICK, SAM. "Dance, Laugh, Drink. Save the Date: It’s a Ghanaian Funeral. ." New York Times (2011): n. pag. Web. 9 May 2011.


There is a link between doctors and patients when they have been together for many years. I have just lost a patient and a friend. It hurts me not because it is a failure to me as a doctor but because I lost a friend, a piece of my family. I like to go to my patient’s funeral to given my final regards because I have cared for them and become very close with them. I find more times than not I am praised as a respected guess but then end up becoming a question in the back of peoples minds so I try to not over stay my welcome. It is hard to see people who you’ve shared some of their most personal conversations with not moving.

OFRI, DANIELLE. "A Doctor at the Funeral." New York Times (2011): n. pag. Web. 9 May 2011.

I never could have guessed that a party would be thrown as a funeral and it be socially accepted. This idea blew up in my mind; I started planning my own funeral party but wait I’m not ready to die any time soon. This way of celebrating death made me think of it in a new light and made sense to me. Instead of sitting in sadness about something I can’t change I should be happy for the life that was with me not so long ago. I think that I would feel better surrounded by a bunch of happy people then a bunch of sad. In our country this is not a socially acceptable and I would love for that to change.

I respect everything doctors do to save lives but I don’t know if I would want the doctor of my loved one to be at their funeral because emotions run high at a funeral and I would not want anyone blaming the doctor for anything that might have happened. I think that of the doctor wants to come they can before or after everyone is there. I just feel better for this way.



Retired Gravedigger

Q: Do you believe in the after life?

A: I believe in the after life because I am a Christian man and my religion specks of there being an after life. Christianity talks about the after life talking you to heaven or hell.

Q: Do you believe that how your buried can led you to a happier or better after life?

A: I believe that as long as you are buried in the ground respectfully by your loved once you will be going to the right place in the after life.

Q: Personally I am creped out by cemeteries. How did you get comfortable being in a cemetery at night?

A: I needed money to put food on my table for my wife and I. I said screw being scared of what I have no proof excites like zombies and ghosts and started digging with my thoughts.

Q: Do you know how you want to be buried when you die?

A: I want to have a nice funeral in a church, with a nice casket and a wake. Then I want to be buried next to the rest of my family.

At 70 with a bad back grocery shopping is not an easy job but neither was grave digging. A new friend of mine Lenny needed help with his grocery shopping and I volunteered to help in exchange fore an interview. He gladly accepted. Lenny had been a gravedigger for 40 years before he retired five years ago. His back problems put him out of work. Lenny has always been a tough guy but not so book smart. He started a family early in life and need away to support them. He found being a gravedigger work perfect for his life style. Lenny is a Christian man that lives by the bible. After know his background I started asking him tough questions about his beliefs, which he didn’t like very much. I questioned the idea of the after life and if heaven and hell were real. I asked him, if the people who wrote the bible knew all the information about earth we know today would they believe in what they wrote? Lenny said assertively, “I was raised to live by what the bible preaches and also I’m an old man, when I question things it leads me to question my life and my actions which makes me sad.” I could understand what Lenny was trying to convey. By questioning the social practices of our society it leads us to question our actions and beliefs. It’s a very sad and depressing thinking this way. As we passed through the flower section I asked Lenny how he wanted to be buried? He answered the question from the same point of view as all the other questions. “I will follow what the Christian religion says to do.” I got a little frustrated because over this year I have been learned to think past my bubble thoughts and really think about what I do and say. I said plan and simple “have you ever questioned the funeral practices or looked for alternative practices done in other cultures.” Lenny looked at me if I was crazy. I had hit a brick wall with Lenny; he was a die heart believer in his faith.


The funeral industry is the one industry that I believe can be changed for the better in this country but will it ever?

If home funeral were legal in NYC; would that be good or bad?