""The funeral of the second uncle of the retired principal, only six people from the whole village participated, and the coffin was transported by crane"."
My second uncle, a 76-year-old retired principal, worked as the principal of a middle school in the county. Half a month ago, he unfortunately fell while exercising at the door of his home, and his head hit the ground, causing him to fall into a coma on the spot.
In an emergency, his family called 120 and took him to the hospital for resuscitation. After ten days of intensive care, his life could not be saved.
Yesterday was the funeral of my second uncle, and I rushed home from Weifang City, Shandong.
When I arrived at the village, it was half past ten in the morning, and I thought that the funeral of the second uncle would be very warm, but when I approached it in person, I felt depressed in my heart. Only six people from the same village participated in the event, and most of these six people were over 70 years old.
Compared to when my father died in March, the number of people in the same village was small, but there were at least 30 or more.
The second uncle has devoted his life to education, and he has been living in the county town and has almost no contact with his old family. Even though my father and he were brothers, there was very limited communication between them.
In the more than ten years of the second uncle's family, Bai Shi in the village has never seen them. Although the father had indirectly reminded the second uncle and his son, the answer he received was that after the second uncle died in the future, he did not want to be buried in the countryside, but chose a cemetery in the city.
However, life is not entirely in the hands of an individual. Faced with the unexpected death of his second uncle, his son finally decided to bury him in his hometown village.
On the morning of the funeral, the second uncle's son took it for granted that many people would come to help. However, his expectations proved to be too idealistic. Until after nine o'clock in the morning, only three people came to help.
The village deacon asked the second uncle's son to go door-to-door for help, but he was faced with an indifferent face. Until ten o'clock, there were barely six people.
Such a small number of people simply cannot support the entire funeral process. In desperation, the second uncle's son had to contact the crane urgently. At the funeral at half past three in the afternoon, the coffin of the second uncle was hoisted from the yard to the cemetery in the field by a crane.
When I was a child, rural funerals were a major event for the whole village, and both men and women, young and old, would come to help. This tradition is the embodiment of mutual help and mutual help.
However, with the passage of time, this custom seems to be disappearing. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer people helping in the village mourning.
Migrant workers have become the norm, the rural population has shifted to the cities, and the figure of young and middle-aged people in the villages has gradually drifted away. After people who work hard in a foreign land gain a foothold in the city, they will buy a house and settle down, and bring the elderly and children to live in the city. They rarely return to their hometowns and are increasingly disconnected from their villages, so fewer people attend rural funerals.
The second uncle's funeral encountered both external and internal reasons. During his lifetime, he did not adhere to the traditional "exchange of courtesies" in the village.
Life inevitably goes through birth, old age, sickness and death. When someone dies in someone's family, your participation is both a form of respect and a return for friendship. Treat others as you would like them to treat you.
Through the experience of my second uncle's funeral, I would like to warn those who are developing outside the country not to despise their parents and fellow villagers.
In the village, when the old man dies, try to go back to participate, if you really can't go back, you have to call ** to express condolences, and even help pay some gifts in advance.
Feelings need to be managed, and the usual efforts can be exchanged for support when needed. The "cold field" of rural funerals is an inevitable consequence of rural development, but in any case, we should not let the regrets that could have been avoided happen to us. 