Personal Narrative: My Father's Funeral

‘God really started talking to me and started showing me that you're totally wrong,” Pastor McClurkin said in a Facebook Live video. “Totally wrong.”

This was three days before my graduation day. Wednesday May 17, 2017, we had to be at the funeral home to make my great grandma’s funeral arrangements, while at the funeral home the whole family was there. My Aunt Marthy was at the funeral home, when she saw me she said, “Desiree I’m so sorry about this happening before you graduated and hugged me.” As you guys might not know my great grandma was my whole world, I would do anything for this woman. We made the arrangements on Friday May 19, 2017, which was also my mamaw Brenda’s

It all started in June of 2015. God had been bugging me with something for a long time. I had suddenly felt called to Woodcrest to have with their ministry. Flashback to March of 2015. I had found myself going to a conference at Woodcrest. When at the conference I began to realize that Woodcrest was full of people with faith, despite what I had thought. I thought the preacher was high and mighty but at the conference he was sitting among the people learning with us. I also was greeted with a smile by everyone. These people I had never seen before where so nice. Having trust with Woodcrest I showed up with my grandma, since my parents were out of town. I went in and the message was deep, what I didn’t know what God was going to do in the next

I talked to a man named Rosario. Rosario was a man who moved to America when he was 15. At the US, he drifted into the wrong direction and he was hooked on drugs. He didn’t care about school nor a job. All he cared about was Drugs, Alcohol, Cigarettes and parties. As he was growing up, he began to realize how his life was such a mess and he wanted to get out of it, but it was tougher than he imagined. Alcohol was like water to him, and he couldn’t live without it. Alcohol had him gripped tight, and Drugs blinded him. He began to feel hopeless, and he felt like there was no way out of this life, and the only way out of it was suicide. Rosario was going to jump off a bridge. On his way to the bridge, a Lady asked if she could invite Rosario into her Church. He said yes, and he sat down in an empty seat. He told me that the pastor was talking about Drug abuse, and he said that the pastor suddenly began praying. The pastor said God was talking to him this morning, and he wanted pray for anyone who was in need of a prayer, and he emphasized the fact that everyone of us have a purpose and there is always hope because God loves every single one of us. Rosario told me that he suddenly felt this presence of warmth, and he felt like someone was giving him a warm hug. Rosario wept at his seat because he never felt that kind of warmth before. The pastor introduced

It had been less than a week since we were told that my Great-Grandma was dead. We drove all the way to North Dakota for her funeral. When we got there, there was a casket with the pale, lifeless body inside. There was also a lot of people gathered for the funeral, which made a lot of sense considering that my Great-Grandma was 100 years old. After a waiting for while, we walked into a room where we were told how the funeral was going to go, but all I could think about is how real it felt that she was really gone and that I would never see her again. When we sat down in the chapel, I saw a picture of my Great-Grandma and inside my heart pounded and tears swelled. I held in my tears with all the strength I had, but when I saw the casket slowly

I had about a 15 minute drive to get back home from the cemetery, my phone was dead, and I was terrified of what my parents were going to say about me trying to talk to spirits. When I pulled into the driveway and came running into the house, my mom had thoughts that something was wrong. My eyes were bloodshot from crying and blood on the back of my shirt gave away that something wrong had just happened. I explained to my mom what had been going on and she wanted to see what marks I had on my back. As I lifted my shirt, I could hear my mom gasp, I had a large hand print and three deep scratches on my back. My mom told me to never go back to the cemetery and that was a promise I don’t want to

As dawn began to approach, on the 22nd day of September 2016, my father followed his path directly for his bedroom. Normally we would sit and talk about our days, and complain about how hard life is. That month was nothing but a cold silence that rang through the house as the garage doors shut. Today was the day that my father would tell us the truth. At the time our family and I were attending a church in Decatur. We had been members for over 10 years, and it was all going to come to a complete halt. Emerging from his room, my father had a blank stare on his face. A look that I would never forget. He began to inch forward and call us all to the dinner table. The topic of conversation began with a sudden burst of tears, and my mother reaching

“And he will be missed” We went to New Mexico a few years ago for my uncle James’ funeral and this is how they ended it.. It wasn’t much of a funeral because it was at the Moose Lodge. This is sort of like a pub bar thing. It had shuffleboard and pool but we aren’t aloud to get the pieces for it because we weren’t of age to go up to the bar. They had people food and they had an open bar and a shot in front of his ashes. “He looks a little dry, should I give him the shot?” My mom asked my uncle Jackie, all us thought she was funny, Jackie, Val, and Charlie didn’t seem to think she was funny. So my sisters Hayley and Mikayla, my cousins Heather Grace and Victoria, my cousin’s husband David, her step son Zay, and me played shuffle board the whole time we were there. When we left we went back to my aunt’s ex-husband’s,Joe, house because that was where we were staying. The 6 adults were outside while us 5 kids were inside playing games. They were there all night and when they finally left my sisters and Victoria watched The Breakfast Club, I was out like a light that night. When we woke up the next day my dad had already been to the gas station to pick up coffee because Joe doesn’t have a coffee maker which was problem for my family. After everyone was finally ready, we went over to my uncle Steve’s “house”, it is a mobile home. WE spent the morning there, we even got to take a few of my uncle James’ pocket knives, I took like 3, he made them all the time

I am part of an awesome family of four, including my mom, and my two brothers, Logan and Christian, it used to be five, but my parents divorced and I never talk to my dad anymore for hurting us. We've always been a close family with big hearts for God. My family and I moved to Michigan and shortly after we moved I joined a youth group at St.george's church, it was awesome for me to build friendship and to get much closer to God. Darkness entered my life over time, I began to feel weird, a smile I had every day had vanished. I began to see or hear things that aren't there about thoughts of death. I began to lose faith in god. My life felt like it got lost.

I walk into my religion class half awake and sat down all the way in the back with Jackson but we all call him Jacks. So I was sitting in class and Ms. McCalister addressed the class by saying “who knows about the ten commandments?”. I sat there thinking what on earth is she talking about? As I was thinking, Ms. McCalister started talking. “My son is 16 years old and he will never listen to what I say. He never wakes up on time and he never cleans up his room. Today I was late because my son didn't wake up on time and I couldn't print any worksheets for you guys today. So, while I was driving, I was

My freshman year of high school my Uncle was finally getting married. My family all flocked north to the foreign land of New Jersey, where you can’t even pump your own gas. Driving to New Jersey my only problem on my minds was memorizing the passage I had to read in the ceremony in front of my entire family, not listening to my family get into a heated debate about when giving to charity, how much was too little and what was too much to the point of idiotic. With the good news of the wedding reached my great uncle Wayne, he came out of hiding to join in the celebration. After the wedding ceremony and my excellent performance, we all drove to a house on top of a hill that overlooked New Jersey wildlife. I was wearing this ridiculous pink and navy blue dress that was so big in the bust I felt like I was swimming. My grandmother picked it out so my mom forced me to wear it. Now being 15 I was prompted to the adult table which seemed great not hearing kids fight over petty thoughts, boy was I wrong. Sitting between my grandparents and great uncle the only topic of conversation was obviously religion. After the 15 minutes of calm before the storm, my grandmother asked Wayne “What have you been up to?”. Those 6 words were the spark of a fierce argument which I would be dragged into.

One day on my way home from college, I decided to stop by the Lake Hamilton nursing home and see my grandma. Recently she was diagnosed with general weakness, and vascular dementia. Knowing that my time is short with her, I want to make the most of the time we have left. So when I arrived, she was in her room talking to her roommate and watching “Little House on the Prairie.” When she saw me, her eyes lit up with joy, and we started catching up since the last time I saw her. Luckily, that day the nursing home invited a small gospel group, from Missouri, to put on a show for the older folks. I rolled my grandma into the dining room for this miniature concert, and while we were waiting for the singers to perform, we were served hot chocolate and cookies.

As I walked into Shiloh Baptist church the day of my great grandmother’s funeral tears flowed heavily from my eyes. I couldn’t bare the pain of losing my great grandmother. I looked down as in hopes of

The second item I learned is that I am not as culturally aware as I once thought. I was raised conservative Baptist, but I have researched and went to many different denominational churches and taken many religion courses so that I would understand what others believe. This skill is beneficial but proved challenging to put into practice. One member lost her spouse of forty years and they had dogs together that they adored as children. She stated during group that she believed her spouse’s soul had gone into one of their dogs. I asked her why she thought this, once she replied I asked her how this made her feel. She reported a peace due to having the love of her life there with her in spirit. Many of the other group members gave nonverbal cues, some appeared to be puzzled and some showed warmth. After this observation I questioned the group regarding how her statement influenced them. I believe I could have been more effective in addressing her statement if I had not formed preconceived notions about the plausibility of this concept, while I did feel that it is a great coping mechanism it is not my place as a counselor to determine if this concept is incorrect.

About two hours after she had called to speak with George, telling him about Grandmother’s condition. I felt Grandmother fade into the light of Heaven and I knew her spirit had left her body. I walked slowly out of my bedroom and told the girls and George, that Grandmother had passed away and was now in Heaven with Jesus. They looked at me funny and the girls started crying and got very angry with me. They starting hitting me and yelling at me. “You are lying”, they both said. George tried to tell me that I could not know that, but