Around here the respect for tradition and the dead and ones neighbour is still paramount.A long standing service still performed is the digging and filling of a deceased's grave by the neighbours..
This is not as simple as it first appears.The grave must firstly be big enough to accommodate the coffin and deep enough to allow sufficient coverage.Knackiness and accuracy rather than than brute force and strength is the order of the day.Although a combination of all four is a great attribute .
Loman was a grave digging neighbour of the highest calibre.
It has also been the tradition that the deceased's family don't dig themselves but send sandwiches and drink to the gravediggers when opening the grave.
Long ago a man with a reputation for stinginess and no close family kicked off this mortal coil.He had gone to the trouble of arranging his funeral to the extent of specifying the supply of a fine coffin and selecting his grave but made no provision for the opening of his grave.
The weather was brutal and his nearest neighbours,too used to his meanness , didn't turn up to dig.Loman alone did.
He dug all day in the teaming rain ,getting soaked to the bone.No sandwiches nor drink arrived.He finished by the light of a Tilly lamp hung on the handle of a digging fork.He missed the arrival of the deceased in the Church that evening.
Next morning he was in the graveyard to greet the funeral as he had to fill in the grave when the coffin was lowered.He had to bail the rain water from the grave with a bucket before the arrival of the burial party.His humour was not good.
The coffin was spectacular.Top of the range,Someone remarked "Jaysus that's some coffin"."It is " said Loman "and that's the boy that's well fit to mind it."
'Nuff said.
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