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Punctuality Please – a timely reminder from Integrity Funeral Care

December 22, 2021

Punctuality Please – a timely reminder from Integrity Funeral Care

There can be a bit of a problem when arranging funerals for members of our community.


Timekeeping.


When we go to parties, or to meet friends, a degree of elasticity with the time is not uncommon, and if it works for all involved then that’s fine.


This is not the case when attending a funeral, burial or cremation.  When we book a venue for you there may well be another service scheduled to start immediately after yours is over.  This means that we are not able to delay proceedings if mourners are late, and on a number of recent occasions, relatives have been caused significant distress when arriving to find a service has begun on time and they have missed much of it.

 

Punctuality is a mark of respect for the person who has passed and for those closest to them who have brought friends and families together to celebrate and mourn the life lost.  What is so strange, is that people seem to understand completely the need to be on time at christenings or weddings.  Nobody wants to be that person jostling past the bride at the church door to hastily sit down before Here comes the bride begins to play.  If we go to the theatre or cinema or sporting events, we don’t expect the projectionist or the referee to stand there calmly waiting for us to arrive.  Similarly at work.  If we arrived at the office, shop or factory half an hour late every day we wouldn’t be surprised if our employer suggested we might find a new job.


Being punctual is a matter of respect, of good manners.  If the church is in silence for moments of prayer and reflection, it doesn’t matter how stealthy you are, the sound of those footsteps on the stone tiled floor as you make a late entrance will be heard by everyone.  It can be very disruptive and draws attention away from the service and onto you.  You really don’t want the nearest and dearest of the deceased to remember the day, “because of all the noise so and so made coming in late.”



Our advice to you would be to aim to arrive half an hour early if not more.  Apart from safeguarding yourself from being the cause of any sorrow or frustration on the part of the other mourners, it will give you time for a little reflection and contemplation of your own about the person who has passed.


The little extra effort will be worth it..

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