Pauper's Graveside Service

As a bagpiper I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at the graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery in the Kentucky backcountry.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost. I finally arrived an hour late, and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone, and the hearse was nowhere in site - there were only the diggers and the crew left, and they were eating lunch. I felt bad and apologized to the men for being late.

I went to the side of the grave and looked down at the vault - lead was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather round. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family or friends. I played like I’d never played before for this homeless man. And as I played “Amazing Grace”, the workers began to weep. They wept. I wept. We all wept together.

When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say to another, “Never seen nothing like that before, and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.”

QuotaBills

Keep calm and bagpipe on. - Unknown

How can I die? I'm booked. - George Burns

Death ends a life, not a relationship. - Jack Lemmon

Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway. - Unknown

Yes, all men must die. But we are not men. - Daenerys Targaryen

Nobody ever died of being shot by a cookie. - Ilona Andrews

Our dog died from licking our wedding picture. - Phyllis Diller

You live and learn, then die and forget it all. - Noel Coward

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. - Erma Bombeck

Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope. - William Hazlitt

Flight attendants don't die, they just fly higher. - Unknown

If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the Up button. - Sam Levenson

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. - JRR Tolkien

Men must have legends, else they will die of strangeness. - Les A Murray

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. - Gautama Siddharta

The American Way of life, si! The American Way of death, no! - Archie Bunker

Most people die with their music still locked up inside them. - Benjamin Disraeli

Man is a complex being: He makes deserts bloom - and lakes die. - Gil Stern

There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval. - George Santayana

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. - Fidel Castro

Cause Change & Lead
Accept Change & Survive
Resist Change & Die - Ray Norda

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling. - Andre Gide

Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them - but not for love. - William Shakespeare

The general outlook is not that the person has died but that the person has lived. - William Buchanan

I'm a Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death. - Jack Kerouac

When I die I want my tombstone to offer free WiFi, just so people will visit more often. - Unknown

The Irish don't know what they want and are prepared to fight to the death to get it. - Sidney Littlewood

Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn. - Mahatma Gandhi

Satire lies about literary men while they live, and eulogy lies about them when they die. - Voltaire

Christ died for our sins. Are we to make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them? - Jules Feiffer

You might be a redneck if your favorite hunting dog has a bigger tombstone than your grandfather. - Jeff Foxworthy

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived. - George S Patton

Solitude scares me. It makes me think about love, death, and war. I need distraction from anxious, black thoughts. - Brigitte Bardot

I felt an earnest and humble desire, and I shall do it till I die, to increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness. - Charles Dickens

I am not afraid of death, which after all can't be far away. What does frighten me, though, is the halfway stage. - Rosie Thomas

Sir, your remarks are repugnant to me, and I disagree with your viewpoints. But I will defend to the death your right to express them. - Voltaire

'Till death do us part' doesn't sound so horrible. It only means about 10 or 15 years and not the eternity it used to mean. - Joy Behar

Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.) - Dorothy Parker

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. - Wilhelm Stekel

We shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. - Eleanor Roosevelt

21-Oct-2020