Thediarygame for 7th October 2023: Supporting my dear friend who is bereaved of her Father/Attending the Burial

Hello dearie, it's been a long while since I described my day. I have missed this aspect of my publication but all the same, it's not without genuine reasons.

The news of the demise of my friend's dad left me devasted especially when I see how sad she is. It is not easy to lose a loved one in death especially when you witness the death.

	my friend and I

It was last month that she received a distress call from her mother about the failing health condition of her father. She rushed to the city to see how it is with him but he gave up just few hours after she arrived. It was very devastating. Since then, my friend has not been herself being the last child of the family and she is so close to her father.

I am that friend that cries when a friend cries and laughs when a friend laughs. Its as if I was the one that lose my dad. The news brought back my losses. I remembered my late dad and mom. It has really been rough this time.

Arrangements were made to bury him yesterday, being 7th of October 2023 and when it comes to assisting my friend, I was willing to travel to her hometown to assist with the cooking and to support her emotionally. And that was what happened.

I traveled to her hometown on Friday, 6th with 4 selected young sisters who were to assist with serving of foods on the burial day.

	the girls and I waiting for my friend to come and pick us and show us their compound.

After the night arrangements, we slept wereever we saw space to pass the night since the house was filled us already. It is a large family. They are 7 siblings and they live in different cities, they all came with their sympathizers and so the house was overflowing even. But it was good to see them all.

The Burial Day

Waking up very early as usual, I did my morning worship and other checkings to ensure everything is ok both in the blog and other things.

At 4am, everyone woke up for the final cooking. I and the girls along with others took care of the slicing of he ukazi leave and water leaf.

	slicing the ukazi leave
	slicing the water leaf

I also assisted with the peeling of the unripened plantain. There was a lot of hands and as such, the cooking was not tedious. Everyone helped out and before 10am, the different kinds of foods were ready. Rice, plantain and soup were the major ones.

	the rice was almost ready here

We all got dressed and ready to go to the kingdom hall were the burial talk will be given. I, along with the girls and my bereaved friend went together

	on our way

But on the way, my friend joined the siblings to the mortuary while we went directly to the kingdom hall to wait for them.
On arrival at the hall, the program of events was given to us and we sat down, waiting for the corpse to arrive and for the program to begin

	the coffin is in front
	front cover page of the program
	back cover page

The talk lasted for about 30minutes and we went back home to serve the foods while the family members went to the grave for internment.

I was part of those that were dishing out the foods while others distributed them to those in attendance who came from different parts of the country. There were lots of people in attendance. Even though I didn't get the chance to see them all but the number of foods that were dished out testified to that. I was there till 5:40pm when I finally left to meet my family but my friend still remained along with immediate family members.

Reflection

Why do people still mourn their dead even when the person has grown old and perhaps the failing health condition is bad that the person is supposed to rest in death?

Well, I reflected on this question for a long time. But the answer that came to my mind was

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has even put eternity in their heart;...(Ecclesiastes 3:11 of the holy scriptures)

This means that the Almighty created us to live forever in good health. So, that thought of living forever makes us to always want to be with our loved ones no matter the age such that when they die, we weep uncontrollably. The enemy, death is really dealing a devastating blow on everyone living today. We yearn to live but we can't, we are helpless. But thankfully, we have a wonderful hope of living forever in line with psalms 37:29 of the holy scriptures.

Conclusion

Death is inevitable and it comes when it likes. We can only take solace in Jehovah's promise of resurrection. Supporting the bereaved can also help to comfort them. It's my pleasure to do my part.