The mood was somber, yet strangely cheerful. Funerals are seldom merry occasions, but this one was something close to it. There are tragic deaths where everything just stops, where those left behind have to rebuild their lives in toto ex post facto. Then, there are less dramatic deaths, where everyone involved saw it coming and had made their peace with it before it happened. Both are losses, but the latter seemed the proper way to go. There is a dignity to it, of knowing how to live and how to die, and how to proceed from there.

The room was somber, but there were also laughs. Somehow, the two went together. Remembering the one who passed also meant remembering all the shenanigans he had been involved in over his many years, and the retelling could only be a source of merriment for those who remembered. More so for those who only just now found out.

Them finding out was what he’d wanted. So they did. And laughed.