The last and only JW funeral I went to was around '94. Two brothers(they were fleshly bros too) and I shared an apartment in Monument, CO. We were all good friends. One day when I was at work, a brother from our hall came in and said in a somber low tone, "Josh, Elias died today." I didn't quite make it out at first, but when he said it again, all of my strength left my body and I fell to the floor. I was totally stunned. I left work and went to his parent's place. Several others were already there. Everyone just talked about the good times we had with Elias. Towards the evening, their place was packed - standing room only. No one left until late that night.
When we had the memorial at the hall the following Saturday, it was packed. They had to set up speakers outside the hall so the people standing outdoors could hear the talk. This was only the second funeral/memorial I had ever been to. The first was for my grandmother(not a witness). After roughly 10 minutes of being preached to, I couldn't stand it and went outside. I was so pissed that the brother giving the talk didn't say anything personal about Elias unless it had something to do with the "ministry." And let's not mash words here - Elias was just as much of a party boy as the rest of us were. His "spiritual" level wasn't any higher than the rest of us 21 year old wannabe frat boys.
Even back then, when I was still mentally "in," it disgusted me to hear that talk. I was expecting something totally different. To this day, I'm glad I never had to attend another jw funeral. I'm dreading the day to hear one for my parents. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I will interrupt it, take over, and say what I want to say. And I'm pretty sure that the elders in their hall might let me do it too(they all know me from when I was very little).
Death sucks. RIP - Elias Barrera