This story was on the local news a few days ago. It’s the tale of Saint Louisans who rally and come to the funeral of a local veteran who had no relatives.
I anticipate that I will die with no relatives. I have a brother who isn’t in good health, I had step-relatives but we don’t keep in touch, and my closest cousins are second cousins once removed whom I have never met, and so I read this with special interest.
I think the article was written very ambiguously. Since the article does not say specifically that the crowd at the man’s funeral consisted of total strangers, I think what I am reading about here is a funeral well attended by a man’s friends and acquaintances.
It is remarkable that someone has friends? Is it remarkable that elderly people have friends? Is it remarkable that veterans have friends? Why is this news?
2 responses to “What Passes for News”
The second paragraph begins with “dozens of strangers.” The last line says that “the Patriot Guard also showed up,” and a quick web search says that they’re an organization that attends military funerals if requested. But it is written up as a human interest puff piece. Based on the content of the one you linked vs. what I found by doing a web search, I would bet that the guy who wrote up yours just did it off of a press release with minimal changes. When I looked up Wunderlich’s name in elsewhere, a different source says that he was 50 (which I don’t think of as elderly) and that he was involved with an organization that serves homeless vets. It also says that that the USO and a cremation services firm put out the call for attendees.
I will also say, separate from the article… my mother is elderly at this point– she’s 79, and she’s been in bad physical shape for almost 6 years now. She survived a major stroke, but it affected her brain and her mobility pretty heavily. Her circle of friends has shrunk a lot. After she retired, her social life consisted mainly of friends she met while volunteering and while walking her dog in her neighborhood. I don’t think she’s seen any of her volunteering friends in years, and the only neighborhood friends that I ever hear about any more are a woman across the street and one next door… and them, I only hear about rarely. I’m feeling depressed thinking about it now–she gets a ton of family support, but friends would be a real boost. I get why she’s fallen out of the circles, though. I think that the longer an elderly person lives with an infirmity, especially if there’s a neurological problem, it may actually be more remarkable that they have a handful of friends, if that.
Grace – well, that sounds better. Thanks for doing that research. When i’m Older, I plan to take the same path as my Mom. After she retired on disability, she had one day scheduled a month when her five best friends came over and made themselves breakfast in her kitchen. They’d all share breakfast, then her friends would clean up. Those were special women. I hope I have friends like that when I’m old.