How many funerals have you been to?
 

So a close friend of mine died yesterday, currently 'unexplained'. It was the morning after his birthday, he went out the night before, came home and by the morning he was dead. He was my martial arts instructor for over 10 years but was my age (he was junior Sensei under his Dad until he was 21). This will be my 5th funeral, the 4th of which was an early death. Two have been violent deaths under 20 years old, one suicide (under 25) and this so far unexplained at 28. Only my grandpa died from natural causes at 90. My mum said she didn't go to a single funeral until she was in her 40's and has only been to four in total at the age of 60.

Is this fairly normal for this day and age or not?

Well I went to my Grandmas on my Dads side, My Step grandad, Both grandparents on my Moms side, My Uncle Howard, My High School friend Johnny and I'm only 31. So 4 before I was 25 and 2 this last year. :(

There is no normal amount of funerals in a lifetime. I've been to far more than I'd have liked to but there isn't much I can do about that now I suppose.

^^this.

Too many,
Grandparents of old age/disease and drugs took the lives of a few of my friends, cancer also took it´s share

^This, If i had it my eveyone would out live me so i don't have to attend another one.

Me too. It makes it even worse when you can't wipe the tears off yer face because you are carrying the casket. [no]

That makes no sense. Surely if you didn't want to go to another one, you'd want to die first?

Me, I never been to one... yet.

2, separated by 15 days. 2012 is being a bitch.

Two. They were boring, not going to anymore.

HA, got my wording mixed up. Pretty much i wish i would live a long happy life and no one i know die until after i do.

Yeah, I have been to 4 or so and they are. None of these have been really close people to me so even extra boring.

When my grandma died, thankfully we only had a wake in her town of death which was pretty enjoyable actually. Then we basically had a vacation where she was buried at her home town. Hope more funerals I go to are like that.

If you find a way to avoid attending your own funeral, let us know will you? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/wink1.gif

I've had a bunch of funerals, one of which was due to a suicide, and another was due to a heart attack at young age. The others weren't really out of the ordinary though (grandparents, older distant family members). I consider funerals as a final moment of paying respect to someone, to someone's life and their passing. If it's a funeral for someone who isn't directly related or close to me, it might even be to support the people around the deceased.

Off the top of my head, I've been to at least eight funerals in approximately 20 years.

Might of guessed. Were you able to contain the yawns?

BlindKensai, most people go to some of, if not all, their grandparents funerals, so it seems odd that your mum didn't go to any until her 40s

Funerals never seem to do justice to the deceased.

Working as a mortician in a funeral home, it's difficult to put exact figures on it.
I BULLSHIT YOU

One last year. My grand mom from my mom side pass away. Old age.. 90 something.

For family members, I've only been to 2. Both were for my Grandfathers. I missed my first grandmother's funeral because I was living in Germany at the time and couldn't make it.

I've also been to 2 military "Final Roll Call" funerals. These kinds of funerals are very emotional.

Here's an example of one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUAYjmYqA9I and http://www.dvidshub.net/video/73362/...eremony-part-3

I wasn't able to contain the laughter.

These people literally dress up dead bodies and put makeup on them. They look fake as hell and it is hilarious.

one too many, i cant even count anymore.
my parents started bringing me to funerals at an early age (around 10-12 i think) even for distance relatives.

from time you go from dwelling on the person's death, then you learn just to appreciate that person's life instead.

Only one, and I had very little to do with the family, only went because they were an old friend of my girlfriends family.