The funeral was scheduled to start at 1:00 PM, so she had to be at the church at 11:30 to help set up for the funeral. People had started arriving for the funeral at 12:00. She had been standing up for an hour, handing out programs and escorting people to their seats.
It had been rumored that Devion was a member of a gang, but no one had any proof of that. From the looks of some of the guys coming to the funeral, it may have been true. Sarah had never seen so many guys in over-sized jeans and shirts at the church. Several of them had to be asked to remove their do-rags and hats. As Sarah escorted the young men to their seats, she prayed for each one.
The funeral went according to the program. Sarah kept silently wishing that the viewing of the body would have been at the beginning of the funeral rather than at the end of the funeral.
The preacher preached a sermon that would have caused the biggest sinner sitting in the congregation to come to the Lord. After his sermon, the preacher had an altar call that was full of young men and women crying out to God. It was an amazing site.
It was finally time for the funeral procession to begin. Sarah took a long deep breath and got ready to escort each row down the aisle.
Row by row, person by person, people went to view the body. Only on or two people cried. No one fell out. No one needed help to walk back to their seat. Sarah was happy, but scared at the same time. They were getting closer to the family rows. That was going to be the true test of her salvation.
There were five rows that held the family. Sarah had reached the first row of family members. Most of the people had started to cry. The first row walked to view the body without incident. Sarah blew a deep breath.
The second row stood up. The people in this row were crying louder than the people on the previous row. Several people were being held up by someone else. Sarah had to catch a young lady who almost fell down as she walked out into the aisle. A couple of people in the third row had started to wail before the people in the second row were through looking at the body.
The third row stood up. They were crying and bawling even louder than the second row as if they were in a contest to see who could cry the loudest. Most of the people from this row walked down the aisle holding someone else. Several people could barely walk without help. A tall muscular young man was crying so hard that two of the funeral home workers had to help carry him down the aisle to view the body.
The fourth row stood up. Two ladies had to sit back down because they were weeping. One young man was aggressively trying to get people from making him go view the body, but some old lady kept trying to make him go.
Finally, Sis. Corinth, the head of the usher board and Sarah's co-usher for the day said, "Leave him alone. You all just go."
After the lady left the young man sitting on the seat, he fell over and moaned as he lay down on the seat.
It was time for the fifth and final row to view the body. These people were the main relatives of the deceased. They were his mother, father, sisters, and brothers. This was always the hardest row for Sarah to do because these were the people who usually had the hardest time viewing the body.
The first person on the row went to view the body. This older man stared at the deceased young man and cried for a few minutes and then went back to his seat. Next, a young lady was escorted up to the body by an older woman. The older woman was okay.
She looked at Devion and said, "Good bye, son."
The young lady fell over on the body and began howling. Sarah and Sis. Corinth went over to help the older lady with the young lady.
Sis. Corinth looked at the older lady and said, "We can hold. You can go have a seat."
The older lady reluctantly let the young lady go and headed back to her seat. The young lady cried for a long time. Sarah looked at Sis. Corinth. Sis. Corinth looked at Sarah. They both knew to pray for the young lady that they were trying to hold up. Sarah looked down at the body. The young lady had begun to slobber on the body. Sarah blew a long deep breath and then nodded at Sis. Corinth. Sis. Corinth looked down at the body. She shook her head and asked one of the funeral home workers to get her some Kleenex. The funeral home worker handed Sarah the Kleenex. Sarah wiped the slobber off of the body as she held the young lady up.
Finally, Sis. Corinth said, "Let's take her back to her seat."
Sarah complied with the order that was given to her. The other people on the last row viewed the body, each one wailing loudly. Finally, the last person had viewed the body. Sarah took a breath. It was almost over.
The funeral home workers walked up to the casket and began closing the casket. As the casket was closed, people began weeping, wailing, and howling like crazy.
Sarah shook her head and thought, "Lord, will this ever be over."
