by SusanHere 18 Replies latest jw experiences
When my brother(non JW) died, the KH was an option for the service.......my mother is JW, as the KH would be free.
It was done at the funeral home, which was best IMO, for all that was involved.
Although, an elder did come and give the memorial service.
purps
My father in law received a KH funeral. He had never joined and at times had been somewhat oppostional to his wife who had been a loyal JW. He would never have agreed to having a KH funeral but I don't think his wife would have wanted it anywhere else.
They, of course, used it to preach their view of the afterlife.
My aunt's husband wasn't ever a Witness and they had a service for him in a Kingdom Hall. This was early 1990's. He didn't oppose the Witnesses that I knew of.
Of course a funeral is for the living family's comfort, so if your sister is comforted by a JW service, that's understandable. You are not really in a position to try to make her feel uncomfortable, but IF IT COMES UP, perhaps his family won't want the standard JW funeral outline. Perhaps they would be better off with a regular funeral home eulogy or a family member talking about him. If that comes up, just comfort your sister and tell her, the family will be satisfied, the witnesses who want to comfort her will still come.
Seen it done many times, most people do not want to upset the believer in that situation.
I have threatened to come back and haunt my wife if they attempt to hold my memorial in a KH.
What I have noticed is that funerals/visitations of non-JW family members (other than spouses and children) are poorly attended by JWs. And if they have to drive any distance...
A sister told me once that her non-JW father died and that her mother came up and asked where her JW "friends" were (I wasn't in the area then or I would have gone). Except for one faithful older sister, no one sent a card either although it had been announced at the KH.
Blondie
My young cousin was raised as a JW, but never baptised. After his death(suicide) he had a memorial service in a local community center, and it was given by a JW. There were a lot of JWs and ex JWs as it was extremely well attended by his family (I wish he would have known how much we loved him and missed him!) I recognized most everyone there, so I figure there wasn't a lot of his dad's cong. but I couldn't be sure-it was 15 years ago. It felt like a family reunion w/o a bunch of strangers, so I imagine that's what it was. At the time I kind of resented (for his JW family)that they wouldn't give him a service in the hall(his dad was a lifelong JW), but in retrospect, it was much nicer where it was, and the family words were actually by those who loved him-not just standard JW talk. (I have been to a few who only had the canned JW talk-ewww) And there was food. Was it just my cong. or do a lot of JWs skip the socializing, memorializing, sharing part of the grieving?
Oh yes, and not just spouses. My grandfather was never a jw, never lived a religious life, but at the end, his daughter had a jw perform the service (not at the KH though). They are also known to crash funerals, like they did when my mother died, and we had the service held at a church (she had been inactive for years, and 4/5 of her children are non-jws, one dfed). A "brother" then crashed her funeral, to preach to us "fallen away"-kids. I could have, and should have, strangled him with my bare hands. They are evil people.
