The Diary Game Season 3||Attending A Burial of My Friend's Brother||All4one

Have you ever lost a dear one in death? Maybe your father or mother as some of us has, or a sister, brother or even a dear friend. Such experience is usually a heartbreaking one that's almost difficult to overcome. Such was my friend's experience last week.

That was on Saturday 19th of this month, February. Sister Priscilla Emenike lost his dear brother named Nwoko Nwankwere to the cold hands of death. This was so bad because the said brother was the first son of the family. Their father Pa Theophilus Nwankwere is very old, now over 90 years and sickly.

Expectations on the first son

In Igbo land, the first son is mantled with the responsibility of burying the father, even if he is poor while his other siblings are handy. He is expected to take the lead in arranging family things during the burial of their father or mother. But when a parent is still alive and in this case, old, the death of a son is the worst to happen to a family. Who will bury the old man?

Moreso, the said Priscilla's brother don't have a grown up child, but justed a family lately with an infant son. Too bad. Mr Nwoko died at 50 years plus.

The Funeral Talk

The burial arrangements was a well organized one. Of course you should expect that to be so because the family is a Christian one, Jehovah's Witnesses. It was a simple funeral where an ordained minister gave the Funeral Talk scripturally based that lasted for about 40 minutes.

He started by telling a little story of the deceased, his demeanor, diligence, intelligence and spirituality. He asked this age-old question: what happens when a person dies? And where are the dead?

Citing a handful of scriptures such as

• Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10 read

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.

Verses 10 reads

Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going.

You can understand from the verses above that when a person dies, he ceases to exist. That simple scripture answers the questions. But the Ordained Minister also cited Bible quotations that offer the hope of living again called Resurrection. Such scriptures like
Acts of Apostles 15:24 and John 5: 28 & 29 are a big boost to everyone's hope of welcoming the dead love ones back again.

Find time to check what hope God Almighty gives that are able to help you and I cope with present predicaments, looking ahead to a time when nobody will cry out because of sickness or death.

Mr Nwoko Nwankwere was buried inside their compound as relatives mourn in pain of such an unquantifiable loss.

But emmnnh, they gave us food and drinks. I ate fufu with ukazi soup. LoL, that was after shedding some tears with the family.