The Funeral

 

            On Sunday the 26^th, one of our babies, Jacob, died in the hospital.  On the following Tuesday, my Mom, Dad, Kris and I went to his funeral. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to go, but in the end I decided to see what it was like, and it was our baby that died. So with our Land Cruiser filled to the limit and a little bit beyond (I was crammed in the back meant for 4 people, but besides me there were 5 others), we drove to Jacob’s village, which was a little ways out of town, towards the lake.  When we got there, we all got out and the caretakers that came with us started singing “In the Sweet By and By” in Tumbuka as they filed towards the house that Jacob’s body was in.  The women all went into the house, while all of us boys hung out and some smoked cigarettes.   After about 30 minutes of singing and mourning, another group of ladies came with flowers and songs to comfort the mourning aunts. 

            When all of the singing was done, the women came out with the coffin.  It was crudely built, but it was pretty for having been made on the spot.  The wood was mahogany colored, with nice trim around all of the edges.  The village headman spoke a little bit, but he cut the message short because of the weather.  Our oldest caretaker then spoke a message, thanking my family for coming to Malawi and caring for the orphans. My mother and Father also spoke and told them to thank God, because if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here.  My Dad also told them that they should be happy because Jacob was in heaven, where he wouldn’t have a weak, sickly body.  The service was short, because Jacob was very young, only 2 months, and so there was very little eulogizing. The graveside service was also short.  The pastor spoke a little, and since Augustine (a Malawian friend of ours who is a translator for the Roach’s) was there, he translated for us.  They buried little Jacob and we left to go home. There was lots of hymn singing during the whole thing.

 For the next few days, the atmosphere in our nursery was subdued and quiet, and any mention of Jacob brought the tears again to many of the caretakers.  They finally requested to have his name removed off of the list of babies in our nursery.  Thankfully, we still have pictures of him while he was healthy.

           

By Jared Langdon