Today, I had to attend another funeral. A sweet dear Christian lady I knew from the nursing home passed away this past Friday. Her 5 sons and 1 daughter and all their spouses and children and grandchildren were all there. She has one sister still alive. The funeral home was packed. The service was officiated by a pastor I know. As I listened to the pastor speak about the life of this dear sweet lady, I smiled about some of the things that I too was familiar with that she had said or done. She was a very giving person. One time I complimented on a blouse she was wearing and how pretty it looked on her. The next time I saw her, she gave me the blouse, because she said it would make her happy to see me wear it. She truly was a very loving and kind person. I never heard her complain or gripe about anything.

The funeral procession to the cemetery was very long. It involved going on the Interstate to drive to the cemetery. On the way to the Interstate, local drivers were impatient and darted in between some of our vehicles almost causing an accident. Once we all were on the Interstate, we had several vehicles coming on the Interstate from the next exit and seeing that we had funeral flags on top of all our vehicles that still merged on the Interstate in the middle of our line of vehicles. Another incident was a driver tried to pull over and almost had three 18 wheelers almost plow into each other and him, because they were speeding on the left of the funeral traffic.

It is clear to me after being at these recent funerals that people do not show respect for funeral services nor a funeral procession on the way to a cemetery. Our state does not have laws to help protect funeral processions. I spoke to the funeral home owners after the graveside ceremony about the incidents on the way to the cemetery. They informed me that our local police department will not assist funeral processions. Not even to get out of the parking lots of the funeral homes with the hearse and the family and friends vehicles following the hearse. This is hard for me to comprehend since I was raised in a state that had a law that depending where the funeral home and the cemetery is which law enforcement agency helped. The state highway patrol assisted if you had to travel on an Interstate. There is definitely not any assistance here in the state of Ohio for funerals.

When my own grandmother passed away in Mississippi, there were over 125 cars in the funeral procession. The city police car was in front of the hearse all the way to the cemetery. At every major intersection, there were other police officers blocking the traffic from entering the intersection so we could proceed. People in other vehicles coming in the opposite direction pulled over to the shoulder of the road showing respect for my grandmother and our family and friends.

Today’s society is very rude and inconsiderate overall in my opinion when it comes to showing respect when they see funeral traffic. What does it hurt to slow down and pull over for a few minutes? If we all would be more considerate toward our fellow citizens, it would be a more respectful world. The teenagers are learning from the “adults” the examples of social behavior. Let’s all share with young people the proper manners and respect for funeral services and processions.