Today is the day of my dad's funeral. One thing about my Dad was his eccentricities. About 12 years ago he joined the Greek Orthodox Church despite not having a Greek bone in his body. So we always knew that his funeral would be colourful and different. We were not disappointed! We arrived at the Harare Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 1-30pm for a 2pm service. Some of the Greek ladies had already arrived. We put some pictures of my Dad up at the church entrance and took our seats in the front row. Shortly thereafter the undertaker arrived. Then amidst chanting the coffin was bought in and the Greek Archbishop took his place surrounded by 11 aides and 3 singers. So began my Dad's final church service. It only lasted 35 minutes most of which was done with the congregation standing! There was no congregational participation and no hymns were sung apart from the chanting and singing in Greek of the three singers. There was chanting, singing, blue smoke, incense, bells and candles. On two occasions the singers started singing at the wrong time at which the Archbishop glared at them and loudly hissed 'shhhhhh!!!' It was difficult to conceal our smiles! Some of the singing and chanting was in English and then we would hear a smattering of prayers for my Dad's soul as well as verses from the Bible. That was comforting. The aides were kept busy by chanting & crossing themselves. They produced incense and kissed the hand of the Archbishop, as well as an icon on the coffin. They also held a Bible for the Archbishop from which he then read. At the end of the ceremony, he said a few very nice words about my Dad and then summonsed me to the microphone. I began my piece and half way through one of the aides fainted. He was promptly carried out. I hope he is ok! My brother said a very nice piece about my Dad and then read a really good appropriate poem that my Dad wrote a few years ago. It is a great comfort that my Dad knew the Lord and was certainly ready to die. At the end of the service we were surrounded by well wishers who 'air' kissed us on both cheeks and sent their condolences.We had tea in the adjoining hall. It all went off very well. It was not very personal and as a result we did not find ourselves very emotional and it was the kind of service my Dad would have loved, so we were happy.
Tomorrow (Wed) at 11am we will go to the graveside for the final burial. I think that will be very emotional.
We got home to running water but no electricity. In fact the electricity went off at 6am this morning and is still off now...nearly 8pm! We got hot water from a neighbour who also bought us a cake and so we had coffee and cake. My step mom Miriam made us a light evening meal. Miriam is currently entertaining us with hymns by candlelight. We don't need electricty for a piano, athough it's a bit dark for Miriam to see the notes, so she has my brother Julian and the neighbour Diana holding candles on either side of her! This is a memory I will cherish. In fact I've got tears in my eyes it's so lovely...Thine be the glory....To God be the glory...On a hill far away...What a friend we have in Jesus...Holy holy holy. .All these lovely old hymns of old all by candlelight! Dad would have loved it and Miriam is cheered by it. We are so grateful to the Lord for His amazing grace to us and the pleasure we are enjoying this evening singing of God's faithfulness to us.
I'm typing this on the laptop and may be able to get it off to you if the battery doesn't die on me. Hope to get you a final blog tomorrow night.
