His father went to the old family farm in Columbiana, Ohio, for Uncle Ludwig’s funeral. Granny and all her sisters were there. He stayed for a week and loved visiting with all of them and their families. He comes home and tells the young man and the rest of the family his favorite moment.
“We were all back at the farmhouse after the service and Margaret came into the front room and said, ‘I thought it was a beautiful eulogy. Just beautiful.’
“Now, Margaret is probably the nicest in the family. The rest of them can be pretty tough. So Nancy says, ‘I don’t know about that, Margaret. If I had wandered in off the street and no one told me whose funeral it was, I never would have known that eulogy was about Ludwig.’
“Then Alice says, ‘My land, Nancy. It’s the man’s funeral. You don’t get up at a man’s funeral and talk about what a shit-ass he was no matter how much he deserves it.’”
And his father laughs and laughs. Which he often does at his own stories.
The Living and the Dead, by Gordon Laws 