Linda King
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
Well, good evening all. You know, it may be hard for some of you to believe, but I love a good wake. Funerals, not so much. Too much standing and kneeling and moaning and mumbling, but a good wake?
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
You walk in, you sign the book at the back, you proceed to the front, you offer your sympathy to those on the first row, you view the deceased for maybe 15 seconds or so, turn around and proceed to the rear, where you get to catch up with all the people you haven't seen since the last week. Now, I was parked across the street from Mackin's Funeral Home in Island Park.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
Their lot did not have one single space available. They're the kind of place that has two, maybe three rooms, and they can have multiple bereavements at the same time. I was here because my friend Hilda's husband had died. Now, notice I said died, not passed. People die. Kidney stones pass if you're lucky. Now, I didn't know Hilda's husband. I had never met him.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
I wouldn't have known him had I tripped over him. I knew her. She was a friend, and I think that the rituals of death are largely for the comfort of the living. So anyhow, I walk into the lobby, and there she is sitting by herself. I walked up to her and we spoke for a couple of minutes.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
She said that the reason she was out there in the lobby was that his wake was so full of people, particularly his family, and it was getting very emotional and it was getting very warm in there, and she just needed some air to clear her mind a bit. So we chatted again, and she proceeded to move off down the center aisle to join her family mourners.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
I, in the meantime, wandered around the lobby, picking up the flyers, the business cards. I was one time at a moratorium in Queens where they actually had postcards for you to pick up and send to somebody. What do you write on a postcard from a moratorium? So I moved to the rear also, went into the room on the right and signed the book.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
moved slowly to the front, expressed my condolences to the folks on the first row, although I didn't know any of them, and proceeded to view the deceased. Now, I'm a woman of a certain age, retired, some people might say settled, but they'd be wrong. Hilda was maybe 10, 15 years my junior, and this fella lying in the casket was 20 years younger than her.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
I thought to myself, go on girl, do your thing, do your thing. So, as I'm standing there, respectfully for my 10 or 15 seconds, Someone approaches me, and it's a man about my own age. And he says to me, Mrs. King, did you know him from the group? And I said, well, to tell the truth, I didn't know him at all. I'm a friend of his wife Hilda's.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
The gentleman looked at me, sort of knit his brow, pursed his lips, and said, Mrs. King, my son was not married. He said, I think you're in the wrong room. Well, he looked at me, and I looked at him, and we started to snicker. Then it turned into giggles. And before it got to a raucous chuckle, I said to him, you know, I think I'd better move to the rear.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Big Reveal
It doesn't look right for the father of the deceased and some strange woman to be standing over the casket laughing. So he thanked me for having made the situation a little lighter, and I did slide right to the back. across the hall to Hilda's husband's wake.