Noteworthy in Nola

Had one to go to yesterday, sadly, for my friend Jazz’s uncle. She cared for him, bringing him food and generally running errands.

Naturally, it’s all really sad, but…he was 85. He died surrounded by his big family, and you can’t do much better than that.

So. The service:

First off, there are the programs- before moving here I’d never seen anything more elaborate than Mass & Prayer cards, but these are a different animal altogether. I had a pile of these dropped on me last year when I was asked if I could put together a program for a neighbor who’d died. I tried to change the format a bit to…um…condense. I was kindly (but in a brooking-no-nonsense tone) told to get it back on track and make it look similar (but better, if you could, because, you know, people notice).

Things you’re likely to find in a program: The full obit, many photos of the deceased, including in their coffin, long long lists of relatives left behind, texts of psalms, personalized poetry.

Here’s that first one I did- pretty typical, overall. No coffin photo, though. (Thankfully.)

Then, there are the souvenirs. Not so much with the older generation, but the young ‘uns often have memorial tee shirts and/or dogtags.

The services are very personalized- even though I was there in support of my friend, having never even met her Uncle, I left there feeling like I knew him- and although it wasn’t the case in this funeral, you often get to hear the bad with the good:

• “He was a menace on the road when he got that Alzheimer’s but refused to stop driving.”
• “She never did know when it was time to stop eating.”
• “As long as his temper wasn’t up he would do anything for you.”

There’s usually a choir complete with an Amen Corner- and they do get down, sometimes rather unconventionally. Yesterday I actually took out a pen to write down the lyrics to one of the songs (I don’t think I can actually call it a ‘hymn.’ ‘hmmmmm,’ maybe…). I knew that if I didn’t write it down, then look at the words there as they sang the refrain, I would either forget or decide I’d imagined it*:

Can’t nobody do me like Jesus.
Can’t nobody do me like the Lord.
He’s my friend, my friend.

And everybody talks to you. And hugs you. Yesterday, an elderly man came up to us and introduced himself as Charlie. After offering his condolences (awkward, since I didn’t actually know the deceased), he informed us that he was 77, and he’d been playing the organ since he was 7. Every phrase was punctuated by a huge smile, made especially sparkly thanks to his golden grille.

Boy, oh boy, did he play. He didn’t want to stop- Charlie did each song in his own way, and added a little organ solo at the end of each one, complete with a Little Richard-esque arm-waving flourish at the end.

A little more than two hours later and it was over. played a song I first heard in the Steve Martin movie “Leap of Faith,” and thought it was just part of the screenplay. Nope, turns out it’s a real song:

Hey, Jesus on the main line, tell Him what you want
Jesus on the main line, tell Him what you want
Jesus on the main line, tell Him what you want
You can call Him up and tell Him what you want

His line ain’t never busy, tell Him what you want
His line ain’t never busy, tell Him what you want
His line ain’t never busy, tell Him what you want
Go on, call Him up and tell Him what you want

*Possibly the most amazing thing was that when I Googled the lyrics, I discovered that there are several songs with that phrase.

Similar Posts:

• Treme filming in Lafayette No 2
• Everything in bloom!
• Jazz Fest week 2- Jonathan Batiste is everywhere.
• Miss Crystal- how much worse than any other finanical advisor could she be?
• Antoine’s Hermes Bar