by Melody Little

Created on: March 21, 2009

One of the hardest days in anyones life is when they have to attend the funeral of a family member or friend. I myself have attended both and attended my first funeral at the young age of 8 when my grandmother, who I was very close to, passed away. Now there is a question that even mother, father, grandma, or grandpa has to answer, is it ok for a child to attend a funeral? In my experience while yes it is very hard for a child to get over the loss of someone they are close to they should still attend. A child is very resilient when it come to these matters because they are so young and this is something completely new. I would personally rather have my child learn about the process of life, and yes they could learn it from a book but real life experience can teach them more than any book can.When I attended my grandmothers funeral I didn't know what was going on. I knew that everyone was crying and upset but beyond that I didn't know what was happening. When the ceremony was over they closed the casket, all I wondered was how my grandmother was going to breath so I went up to the pastor, the only one that was not crying at the time.I asked him how she could breathe if they closed the top, all he could say was what kept my grandma alive was her spirit and that was gone and with god. While I still did not get it I accepted what he had said and went on. I did not cry that day because I made a promise to my grandmother that I would not cry at her funeral, which I would not recommend for any child to do. Not only did it teach me that it was ok to feel sad and cry sometimes it also taught me that life is short. Which is a good lesson to learn.

Funerals are also hard on the people that have to plan them. I had to help plan my friends funeral, after she had committed suicide. Now if you have never seen anyone that has committed suicide let me tell you right now it is never pretty. This funeral was very hard on me because they asked me to go down to where the prep the bodies and basically supervise the woman doing her make up to make sure it was right. This was actually the first time that I had seen a dead body and while I did not love her as I did my grandmother she was still my best friend. Mind you I was only 14 at this time and I was still learning about death and learning how to accept it. I had not planned a funeral before this and the experience taught me that no matter what one way or another it affects everyone involved in that persons life. I had thought about

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