CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Funeral Etiquette

My dad’s funeral was Wednesday morning in Pike County, Illinois, just about 30 miles from Mark Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Mo. My father used to play in the same caves that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn played in, long before they were tourist destinations with electric lights overhead. Like many of us who grow up in that area, my dad was a Mark Twain fan, and his favorite was the scathing collection of short stories called Letters From the Earth.

He used to joke that at his funeral, he wanted someone to read the story about funeral etiquette. We didn’t do it — it didn’t seem to suit my mother’s mood.

But when I saw someone show up at the graveside service with her dog panting on his leash, I wished we would have.

If you don’t know the essay, read it here — and check out the last line.

I have an image of Mark Twain patting my dad on his back and both of them rolling their eyes.