Nancy Russ

Was the Funeral Fun? Nancy Russ

Was the funeral fun? He asks the same question about every funeral, and he always phrases the question just that way. He claims there is no appropriate way to inquire about a funeral, so its easier just to be inappropriate. Hes right about that one. What are you supposed to say when, on your return from the funeral of a loved one, someone asks, How was the funeral? Dont you just want to scream It was really, really sad, you moron! Someone died. How do you think it was? Conversation between Lu Gibbs and her boyfriend. Yes, funerals are sad. Almost always. Because they mark the end of relationships on this planet. But funerals can also be a celebration of life. And they bring out the best (and sometimes the worst) in the people they leave behind. People cry a lot at visitations and funerals, but they also laugh a lot. And, in the south at least, they eat a lot. Hilltop, a small southern town, is fortunate to have a funeral director who has buried several generations of its families. Now he has the help of his vivacious thirty-year-old granddaughter who has given up her social work career to help her Grandpa direct funerals. One of the bonuses of returning to her hometown is discovering that the very ordinary young man she went to school with has returned to run his familys drug store. And there is nothing ordinary about the tall, innocent-looking pharmacist who prefers healthy women to skinny model types. (A good thing, since Lu is 5 8, and wears a size 16). This unlikely heir to the business of burying the dead learns a lot about dealing with death; but she learns more about life as she directs funerals for the wealthy and the poor, the young and the elderly. She learns that even though death is inevitable, how people deal with death is completely unpredictable. She also learns pretty quickly that no one knows more about everybody's business than a small town funeral director. The book is peopled with interesting char