BIG THINGS AS LIFE AND DEATH

Reportage. Death. Funeral

The dark side raises interest, but the subject is avoided. As a reporter and photographer, I went a step further and opened the lid to find out what happens after the moment of death until the deceased becomes one with the earth again. As the priest says at the funeral, "From earth, have you come, from earth you will come again ..."  And is there the paradise that the priest talks about at the funeral, real?

I wanted to find out how it was possible, so I contacted the funeral contractor Ellinor Ekberg and the customer advisor / representative Christer Forslund at Fonus in Umeå. When they meet me Ellinor had a dark suit, blue shirt and Christer had a black suit with white shirt and black tie, both wearing black shoes, it is the attire to show respect for the deceased and its relatives. Tells me that at the hospital / retirement home, when the elderly have fallen asleep, the staff wash the body and change clothes. Relatives get a chance to say goodbye. If the relatives want to leave the body to the nursery.

-  If the person to be picked up at the nursing home has pacemakers, doctors need to obduce to remove the potassium battery contained in the pacemaker. Because a potassium battery contains a lot of harmful substances that can not leak into nature, Ellinor Ekberg tells us when we go to the chapel to leave a coffin. After the autopsy, the dead is in the stallion, waiting for Ellinor Ekberg or Christer Forslund to do a sweeping, that is, taking on the deceased clothes that he / she should have. After sweeping they lay the front of the coffin. Then the coffin is transported by car to a cold room in anticipation of the funeral ceremony. Those cars can either be black Volvo or gray anonymous minibuses with the funeral's name on the bus. I had to come with Ellinor to a cold room to see how it looked where the coffins were stored. Ellinore opens the chest cover to a white chest where an older person wearing his favorite clothes, a light blue shirt and a blue slipover, rests on the face of a scarf. The soul has flown on, there is only one body shell. Ellinor and the caretaker rolled the coffin from the car into the chapel where the funeral was to be held.

On the funeral day an hour before the church bells ring in, either Ellinor or Christer have been in the church / chapel to put your coffin and make sure the flowers are neat and tidy in the right place. I continue on a farm in southern Sweden. The funeral begins with organ music followed by genius when the priest often talks about life, sorrow and death, but also about the deceased's life. Griftetal ends with the transfer when relatives stand up and still prays a prayer with the priest. After praying it becomes a hymn song. When the pastor has begun a funeral prayer, he will be divorced as his relatives go to the coffin and put a red rose to say a final greeting. When the relatives sat down, the priest gave a blessing prayer and strokes three shovels of earth from the mullet over the coffin like a cross and says, "From earth you have come, you will come back from earth ...". The ceremony ends with organ music and clocking. After that, it will be a memorable time when you remember the deceased and eat a meal together.

During the custody, I wondered where the face of the deceased is turned into the coffin during burial and why it lies against this direction. After the funeral, I called up the priest / kyrkoherden Thorbjörn Ahlund at Vadstena Assembly, who once again told me that - The face should be toward the east, and the altar is always in the east, the head is in that direction because it is old tradition. It was thought that east was the weather line of resurrection. Therefore, the dead should face the east and also be buried. When I address the question of paradise the priest talks about at the funeral ceremony, Thorbjörn tells about- Great things like life and death, it is metaphorically an imagery, a picture of something untouchable.

We often speak in pictures. Talking about paradise, talking about images is not a reality. One tries to describe a condition after death, as in Astrid Lindgren's saga about Nangijala. After funeral and burial has been, it often becomes very quiet. Then it would be nice to talk to someone about her sadness. A priest always has a duty of confidentiality - It's after the funeral as the insights come after the funeral service begins to accept that a human is dead. There are many people who belong before a funeral and maybe they are also at the funeral, but after the funeral and the settlement have been, it often becomes quiet. Life goes on for all but the closest relatives. For them, life stands still, says Thorbjørn Ahlund, priest at Vadstena parish. However, many still find it hard to believe that everything will end after death, that everything will be black. Perhaps it's a comfort in believing in another, brighter reality. Life beyond this, where we can meet our loved ones in the dream.

Text and photo; Maria Molander