Bereavement

Fire Time, XIII.

"'Remember, different nations have different ways of taking a member over a loss. What the clans do is to provide him or her company, day and night, until the wound seems to've healed. Somebody's always beside the mourner, ready to lend a hand or talk or whatever. Usually several persons are. For most this is good. At least it's better than brooding alone...'" (p. 149)

I saw this custom in Northern Ireland. In the 1970s, when Sheila and I lived in a house without a telephone, we were visited by her aunt but her brother telegrammed that both of them were needed back home immediately because Sheila's and his brother-in-law had just died. When I walked to a public telephone kiosk to respond to the telegram, I had to tell him that the widow could take cups from the aunt's house if she needed them. I relayed this message but wondered: why does she need cups? 

When we arrived, the front room of the house was full of people, most of whom just sat there without speaking. A few sat directly around the widow. The kitchen table was piled high with things to eat, mainly cakes and biscuits, and some of us spent a lot of time serving tea or washing dishes. The coffin was upstairs. After a day or so, a Presbyterian minister arrived and spoke in the house. Then the hearse went straight to the cemetery.

Larreka's clans would understand. They help their neighbours without stint and honour the gods.