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

The healthy die first. - Italian Proverb

Love is a grave mental disease. - Plato

I hope they bury me near a strait man. - Groucho Marx

It is better to live rich than die rich. - Samuel Johnson

It is not death but dying which is terrible. - Henry Fielding

I would rather die of passion than of boredom. - Emile Zola

If you like to seek revenge, dig a grave for two. - Jewish Proverb

Cowards die many times before their actual deaths. - Julius Caesar

Death and taxes are unsolved engineering problems. - Romana Machado

Life and joy and beauty are better than dusty death. - Bertrand Russell

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. - John Wayne

Death is life's way of telling you you're fired. - Unknown

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death. - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Live so that the pastor won't have to lie at your funeral. - Phil Callaway

If Roosevelt were alive today, he'd turn over in his grave. - Samuel Goldwyn

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. - Markus Herz

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today. - James Dean

Can grave and formal pass for wise,
When Men the solemn Owl despise? - Benjamin Franklin

Work and pray, live on hay, you'll get pie in the sky when you die. - Joe Hill

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. - Benjamin Franklin

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mahatma Gandhi

"Fearless" is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. - Taylor Swift

On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done easily lying down. - Woody Allen

How easy it is for a man to die rich, if he will but be contented to live miserable. - Henry Fielding

It's better to die for an idea that will live than live for an idea that will die. - Steve Biko

There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction. - Salvador Dali

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why. - James Thurber

I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died. - Steven Wright

My idea of walking into the jaws of death is marrying some woman who'd lost three husbands. - Kin Hubbard

The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. - Will Rogers

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not. - Epicurus

When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you'd been the only man in the world. - C S Lewis

2% of the people think, 3% of the people think they think, and 95% of the people would rather die than think. - George Bernard Shaw

I went to the bank and reviewed my savings. I found out I have all the money I'll ever need if I die tomorrow. - Henny Youngman

The courtrooms of America all too often have Piper Cub advocates trying to handle the controls of Boeing 747 litigation. - Warren E. Burger

As a family we couldn't decide whether to have Grandma buried or cremated, so in the end we decided to let her live. - Gary Delaney

It's a good thing we have gravity or else when birds died they'd just stay right up there. Hunters would be all confused. - Steven Wright

Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thirteen roadways lead through life
To thirteen doors of death,
Homeward from foolish fears and strife
We float on failing breath. - Tao

Dogs display reluctance and wrath
If you try to give them a bath;
They bury bones in hideaways
And half the time they trot sideaways. - Ogden Nash

26-May-2022