Well ... you'll all think that I do nothing but get rid of rellies, but when my uncle died and was being buried (intact), we got to the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" bit. A few people threw some soil onto the coffin. His grieving widow said to one her grandchildren, "Go on, dear, throw some dirt on Granddad's face. It's the last opportunity you'll get and you shouldn't miss it."

My sister and I had to turn away. It was the first thing that day that brought tears to our eyes and, since we have very similar senses of the ridiculous, we were holding our sides and gasping. It was helped along somewhat by the fact that we both had pretty much the same opinion of the old basket as his grieving widow ...