16 February 2014

How Do You Bury The Dead?

Yes, how does one bury the dead?

Our neighbor died of cancer last Valentine's day. He was 58 years old. 
I remember that we were awakened one early morning with the neighbor's buzzer echoing in the neighborhood. Our neighbor was partially deaf and lives alone. His wife lives in the USA. A woman told us we need to rush our neighbor to the hospital because he was dying. So they rushed him to the hospital where they took several laboratory tests and later sent him to ICU. His wife rushed home from the USA straight to the hospital and found him kept alive by machines. When his wife whispered to him tears fell from his cheeks. He died soon after.

And these are our neighbor's dogs:
You all know Dawgy on the left. I featured him in my previous posts.
Because our neighbor would leave often
we end up watching over his house 
and his dogs. . . 

And how does one bury 
the only keeper of this stray dog?
We named him Brownie.
He has black, brown, gray furs.
We found Brownie inside our neighbor's house
when our neighbor was taken to the hospital.
So Brownie got fed together with Dawgy ;-)
But now, without their keeper, 
I fear for the fate of Brownie, Dawgy and Whitey. . .


And this is Leo:
I featured him in my previous posts too.
Leo is a deaf mute who love to pass by our house
for some warm milk and cookies.
Now, he passed by to show Sweepy his new puppy
who resembles Sweepy's Babur as a pup.
But Sweepy did not like the puppy.
So I told Leo to bring his pup back
and to help me clean the house of my neighbor.

When our neighbor was in the hospital, Luchie would go and clean the neighbor's yard after feeding the dogs. But when our neighbor died, Luchie called me and asked me to style the house. I always get called to help style people's houses but I did not understand how to style a dead person's house. Luchie said I should re-arrange the furniture to accommodate a burial in the house. Oh! So I tagged Leo with me to help move the stuff around and clean the place. . . . There is a custom against sweeping floors during wakes so the place must be cleaned before the coffin comes in.

Sweepy seemed stressed with the coming and going
since we were practically crossing the house 
to and fro our neighbor cleaning and feeding the dogs.
Sweepy knew our dilemma
because he hears my conversations with Luchie:
Can we afford to adopt more dogs now?

I do not have the answers right now, Sweepy.
I leave it to God and fate.

Trust and believe, my superdog.
For now I can only work on the doable.
Tomorrow will give us the answers we need . . . 

6 comments:

Lisa Gordon said...

I am so sorry, Lui.
I am very glad that his wife was able to return to him in time.

You are very kind to have styled the home for the burial.

"Trust and believe, my superdog.
For now I can only work on the doable.
Tomorrow will give us the answers we need . . . "

I love this, Lui.

Sending you big hugs, my friend. xo.

DeniseinVA said...

So sorry Lui. I admire how you as neighbors take care of each other at such times.

Gattina said...

That's a very sad story. Fortunately you keep so good care of the dogs !

Unknown said...

Dogs are amazing creatures! I had one and it was amazing!

Stay in touch with me on BLOGLOVIN

Love,
FASHIONHYPNOTISED

Connie Smiley said...

Oh Lui, you have room in your heart for all the creatures, but balancing time and energy is the dilemma. I do hope you sleep well and answers come with the morning. Hugs.

Connie Smiley said...

Happy Birthday, Lui! Hope your day is special, just as you are.