A tale of a Sudden Death

Around two at night, when I was watching another YouTube video during Quarantine, waiting for yet another day to pass, I heard a knock on my bedroom door. I got up slowly, I was not really into moving these days, and opened it. Outside was my roommate. His expression was pretty grim and he seemed concerned. I was sure something happened
«Grandma died»
He told me. Not mine or his, but a grandma we were living with. It was not exactly sudden. She had been sick for quite some time now and the last few days she couldn’t eat or drink, but for some reason I still hoped she would make it for a little longer. I guess after a point there is not return in things like that. I stood looking at him for a while. I didn’t know what was the appropriate way to react. We both went in the living room across her room. I said to myself that in there, where once there was a living person now it is the opposite. I tried to make myself realize what was happening.

The house quickly go in motion. It was a day after Eid al-Fitr and many relatives were already staying there. Some were crying, some, half- asleep, were still trying to understand what happened, others were moving furniture around, preparing the home for the funeral. We both tried to make ourselves available for anyone needing help or a shoulder to cry one. The first seemed to be more needed. People might have been in need for the latter too, but there was no time for mourning. The house was ready in a few hours. All furniture had been pushed to the side with carpets placed where they previously were, for the guests to sit and pray. In the middle of the room a bed was placed, were grandma’s body would lay, looking towards, what I would assume was Mecca.

I have never been to an Islamic funeral, well in fact I hadn’t been to a funeral at all, but I had read about it and it was as I had read. Relatives, friends and neighbors soon arrived, not too concerned with the raging pandemic. They were all siting down around the bed, were grandma’s body was placed, after being washed by her female relatives. They all took one of the Quran books and were praying. I and my roommate were sitting on the side, trying not to pass out there from the lack of sleep, while eating a little bit of everything the relatives had brought.

After a second washing and more praying, it was around eleven in the morning and time for the burial. I was moved there by a car driven by some random relatives I didn’t know or had seen before, but were nice enough to offer me a ride. The burial grounds, were smaller and more humble than what I am used to. Her male children did most of the burying job and there was no coffin evolved. In fact most of the funeral was organized by the family. An outside party was only needed to carry her there and prepare the grounds. She was wrapped in a white sheet, previously picked by her and given to her daughter and she was placed like that in her resting home on her side with her forehead looking at Mecca.

After coming back and before hearing an very loud and unapologetic fart from her eldest son, we had dinner and soon after I collapsed into my bed. The story however doesn’t end there, as for the following four days, the house we were leaving was looking more like a hostel, with around forty relatives living there. Truth is, we both had hard time to adapt to the chaos. In the kitchen there was constant cooking and the bathroom was almost always occupied and definitely always dirty. We had to go shopping often just to get away for a few minutes since during quarantine we didn’t have many options, but at least they seemed to enjoy it.

In the mornings there were huge pots constantly cooking food. Lunch and dinner were the same. There was always someone in the kitchen cooking without stopping and without getting tired. Every afternoon they were all getting together to pray for grandma. We were yet again on the side creepily observing, as we had nothing else to do. Then they would all sleep together on the floor and for a few hours the house was at last silent. In the last day, we prepared some boxed with food for the local Islamic school. In exchange for food they would pray for grandma’s soul. And after then the relative’s left and for the first time we truly show the empty room she had left behind.