Funerals
Out of context: Reply #38
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- pski0
tips:
no kipling quotes
Start with a joke (really).
write it out - its ok to have notes. and spell & write phonetically - it helps.
no poems
don't say "I knew him"- it sounds like "even some of my best friends are ____ ". nobody knows anybody. try to describe what this person and this loss means to you.
ps. I was at a memorial (with the family in attendance) where "a good friend" got up at talked about how the deceased was Italian - he was Irish.
(I have this on file, 300+ in attendance)
This is what I said:
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I'd personally like to thank everyone for coming. George told me that
if this affair wasn't standing room only that we should postpone
it. He didn't want to play to a half empty house.
(big pause)
When George first got sick
I kept trying to get some kind of understanding.
I came up empty.
(big pause)
Some one once said OF Lincoln's gettys
burg address -
which was a speech given at a memorial service of sorts -
that instead of getting up there and giving the "Four Score
and twenty years ago" spiel -
he should have just got up to the podium -
not said anything and just shook his fist
@ the sky.
(big pause)
I invited George to a small Christmas party we were having in Hoboken.
Their where not many people there.
I had a real hard time trying to buy presents for the friends I invited.
George came in a little late.
He had a large brown paper bag with him.
I was surprised -
I didn't tell him to bring anything.
At that time I knew him for about a year.
He knew the other people there for even less time than that.
He dug into the bag and pulled out presents for everyone there.
And they were great gifts, quirky funny and perfect gifts.
(big pause)
I came to know
later that George,
was a natural when it came to giving
(big pause)
I was born in Jersey City.
All my family is from Jersey City.
I did not grow up there.
But I would visit Jersey City twice a week -
everyweek, all my life.
I would think about living there -
hanging out with all my cousins who lived there.
When my life came full circle and I moved back to Hudson County
and I start palling around with George - I had the thought that
if I did grow up in Jersey City
and
I was real lucky -
he would have been one of my buddies.And as I got to know him
he started to fill in the gaps of the whole Jersey City experience for
me. And turns out he was a friend of my cousins.I was real lucky.
Thank you for listening.
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