Do you find funerals, and the viewing of the dead body, to be morbid?

No. To me, it’s a ritual that helps give me closure.

More than two decades ago I decided my beloved Uncle’s body in a coffin was the last dead body I would ever come close to see in a wake.

After seeing him and my much beloved grandfather in coffins I realized I didn’t want to see anymore parting images of loved ones in such a sad lifeless state.

I was present at the death of a family member who died after a very full and interesting life. I stood at the foot of her bed where she lay unconscious and dying and suddenly, she was gone forever, leaving a lifeless husk on the hospital bed.

I didn’t know you could see death happen like that.

It didn’t feel morbid at all just very very strange.

When my mom died from cancer, in her bedroom at her house, we went and cried and touched her and reminisced for a while before the funeral parlor took her body.

I always touch the body at a wake. My mom did, too. Even if i didn’t know the person that well, I feel like it brings me closer to them.

I am always glad to say lovely things about the deceased to family members, and mostly, nowadays, the people I know have “celebrations of life” for their passed loved ones.

I never “view” the body, I have read and heard too much about how it’s prepared. Makes me squeamish.

But “morbid”? Never. I get very philosophical about it all, and I hope that when it’s my turn, my people care enough to have a party.

Funerals do offer family and friends a type of closure, personally I prefer a celebration of life instead of a funeral. where you get together remember the person and tell old stories and just remember what a great person the departed was.

It proves that the person is actually dead, and not faking.

@jca2 My father died of cancer when he was 32 (I was 4). At the funeral it looked like my Father was lying on a couch with flowers all around. He was slightly below my eye level. Room filled with people. My Mom told me to not touch my Father. I wasn’t sure what was happening but I could tell it was very bad. I didn’t want to even get close to my Father. I wanted to get away. I ran and hid in another room and played with small toys. I didn’t go to the cemetery where they buried him.

Not morbid really, just a last goodbye. But no touching, kinda rude in my area unless you are family.