Come Together

Shackelford Funeral Directors • July 8, 2015

We met in the service hall of the funeral home.  We had grown up together, although not exactly the same age, but we were in high school together and attended church together.  As we aged, our paths had taken very different directions; one was an elected county official, one a cosmetologist, one an accountant turned funeral director from necessity.  But tonight we all had a single mission—to help a grieving family deal with their loss.

The cosmetologist was there for hair and make-up at the family’s request.  It’s an important part of the process for if it isn’t exactly right, there’s a stranger in the casket instead of a loved one.  The county official was there for moral support and the accountant turned funeral director was there to grant them access and to answer whatever questions they might have.

When the work was completed, the accountant/funeral director was paged to the room by means of a text message and asked to pass judgment on the effort.  Looking at the face before them was difficult for all three.  This was someone they had grown up with, a peer of their parents, the mother of their friends.  In life she had been a beautiful woman, both inside and out, and death had not taken that from her in spite of her illness.

As all three walked down the hall, back toward the front of the building, one of them remarked, “Who would have thought when we were teenagers we would be doing this now?”  She was so very right.  Life occasionally presents you with a situation you could never have foreseen, even with a crystal ball.

Under the best of circumstances, death brings people together.  Family and friends gather to offer comfort and support and often the funeral home becomes the site of reunions where distant relatives catch up on the latest news and friends who rarely see one another reminisce about the good old days, sharing stories about the one life that brought everyone to this same place in time.  The problems come when we believe that comfort and support are no longer necessary, that we have progressed as a society to the point when we no longer need one another in times of sorrow.

Our paths separated once more as we each went our own way.  We will come together again at the funeral and probably more in the future since I’m fairly certain death will continue to call.  But in the meantime, it is comforting to know there are people in this world that will put their lives on hold to be there when it matters most.

 

By Lisa Thomas August 20, 2025
Carl Jeter had walked out on the deck of his house to survey the flood waters of the Guadalupe River—and to be certain the level was no longer rising.
By Lisa Thomas August 13, 2025
It was bedtime in the Guinn household and six-year-old Malcolm had decided tonight was the night to declare his independence.
By Lisa Thomas August 6, 2025
They had been married almost 25 years when Death suddenly took him. Twenty-five years of traveling around the country with his work. Twenty-five years of adventures and building their family and finally settling into a place they believed they could call their forever home.
By Lisa Thomas July 30, 2025
It was quietly hiding in the chaos that was once a well-organized, barn-shaped workshop/storage building, one now filled with all the things no one needed but with which they couldn’t bring themselves to part.
By Lisa Thomas July 23, 2025
Do you remember when new vehicles didn’t come with on-board navigation systems and if you wanted one you had to buy something like a Garmin or a Magellan or some other brand that would talk you through your trip?
By Lisa Thomas July 16, 2025
Recently I found myself playing a rousing game of “Chutes and Ladders” with my grandson and his mom (my daughter)—a game I soon realized I was destined to lose.
By Lisa Thomas July 10, 2025
Facebook is like the double-edged sword of social media. On the one hand, it can be the spreader of good news . . . But it also serves as the bearer of all that is bad.
By Lisa Thomas July 2, 2025
I don’t actually know how Facebook decides what I like or what topics might be of interest. It’s understood there is some mysterious algorithm quietly running in the background . . .
By Lisa Thomas June 25, 2025
With her head bent low and her eyes laser-focused on the sidewalk before her, she slowly made her way around the park. Step by step, one foot in front of the other.
By Lisa Thomas June 18, 2025
It was dark outside when the phone rang; a glance at the clock revealed the day was still in its infancy, which explained why the funeral director’s brain did not want to engage. Years of experience prevailed however, and he answered the call, finding on the other end of the line a hospice nurse requesting their services for a death that had occurred in a home.