Grandfather Strand's Funeral

In the weeks before my grandfather died he apparently suffered minor strokes and became disoriented in his thinking, speaking of his “Tilda” as he had called my grandmother and wanting to go “home” which meant going back to the farmhouse on the farm. Aunt Hulda had care of him during the days I guess and various relatives helped out at night. On one of these occasions even Clarice was pressed into duty although she was hardly old enough to be capable of handling a ponderous old man in his mental wanderings. I don’t think this period lasted too long mercifully.

From his funeral I have a couple of vivid remembrances. The first of these was in the church, where, following the usual practice of the time, the coffin was rolled to the back of the church and the people attending the funeral departed, walking past the open casket for one last look at the deceased. The relatives were the last to file past the coffin. In Grandfather’s case, as the season was summer, a light net was draped over the open coffin to keep the flies (drawn doubtless by subtle evidence of mortal decay) away from him. The undertaker stood nearby trying to whisk the flies away with discreet movements of his arm and hand. I felt saddened, feeling that the whole affair was a rather inauspicious end to an individual that had fallen on hard times in his last days (more on this later).

The second remembrance was much more positive. As always at funerals the relatives and friends, particularly those coming from some distance, would come to the home of the deceased (after the cemetery service) and a late afternoon lunch would be served. At my grandfather’s funeral some cousins of his from Minnesota had come and one of these was a gentleman in his early 80s. He was a lively person for his age and described how the day before he had been out in the field “bucking” hay. His name was Bonderson, a name which we presently applied to a sprightly kitten we had on the farm. Bonderson was slight of build, somewhat stooped but talkative and personable. He had been accompanied by his younger relatives, one of which I remember as dark and rather saturnine in demeanor.