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I hope she had a good life.

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Sorry for your loss.

So sorry to hear it, hadjiboy. Condolences to you and your family. I'm sure she was proud of all of you.

Sorry for the loss hadjiboy, but what a great life.

my condolences, hadj.

((hadjiboy))

Yeah, what arse_hat said. It's never a happy thing to lose someone, but I can't help but smile when I think of how awesome it must have been to live that long.

That's a lot of years she lived. The level of change she saw in her lifetime must've been at least as great, if not greater than, any other centenarian in recorded history. I'm sure she regaled you and your family with story after story, and I'm sure she will be missed. My condolences.

Not to derail, but all of my grandparents are gone, the last being my maternal grandmother who died 10 years ago when she was in her 80's. Her mental faculties never ceased, though she passed from cancer obtained by sunning for years with one of those mirrors and no sunblock.

I hate to say it, but she really wasn't very much of a nice person and I never go much out of our familial connection. The memory of her that stands out most in my mind is from when I was about 10. We were visiting her in her hometown of Green Bay and had taken a trip to the small zoo near her house. It was the type of place that housed local and regional animals - stuff like bears, snakes, and small wildcats. There was a pit maybe 15 feet deep that housed a family of raccoons. My grandmother (we called her the affectionate German term "Daba") did not like the fact that such vile vermin as these rodent raccoons were being kept at a zoo, regardless how low-key the place was. She started throwing dropping large rocks into the pit, repeatedly hitting the poor critters as they had no place to effectively hide.

She encouraged me to help her all out assault on raccoon-kind by handing me a rock and guiding my hands to make sure it landed squarely on the center of its head. To my mother's utter terror, we were spotted and tossed out amidst threats to call the police and lock our perverted family up forever.

Again, sorry to derail, and hadjiboy my thoughts are with you and your family.

hugs, hadjiboy!

Sincere condolences, hadjiboy

I'm sorry, hadjiboy. I don't know what Indian Muslim traditions are when women die, but please know that my thoughts are with you.

hugs!

Wow, that's an awful lot of years. My last grand-relative died a few years ago within a few days of finding out my sister was pregnant and within a few hours of sorting out her end-of-year finances (this was really important to her). All was right in her world and she drifted off to sleep in her favourite chair.

My thoughts are with you and your family.

I'm sure she regaled you and your family with story after story, and I'm sure she will be missed.

About the only thing that she and I ever talked about was her deep-deep affection for my grandfather, her favourite brother. Whenever my mom and I would go to visit her, she would ask us who we were, and wouldn't recognize us by our names, but the minute she'd hear we were Abdul Karim's kin, her whole face would light up and she would proudly declare that he was her brother. (I don't know what else would go through her mind, but you could always be sure that brother and sister remained together for as long as they could--talk about ever lasting love?)

I don't know what Indian Muslim traditions are when women die

Well, I'm assuming it's the same for women as it is for men, since I haven't been to too many funerals luckily (just two actually; one for a cousin brother of mine who died of cancer, and this one of my grand mother's), and I doubt there were too many discrepancies between the two of them. The most important thing after a person's death (I'm not sure if it's the same way for Christians) is to bury the body as quickly as possible. So my grandmother had passed away early yesterday morning, and by noon that day, she was already underground.

It's a fascinating process: her body (which was still covered with the pristine white sheets that her daughters had covered her in, after giving her her last bath, and cleaning her body), was placed in a grave with her head tilted towards the direction of the Kaaba (that black squarish-structure that all muslims turn to during prayers), and then everyone who was gathered there put in a hand full of dirt into the grave, after which the person who was incharge of the ceremony climbed down into the pit, and then using the mud, and these concrete slabs, covered the body so as to entomb it in the grave itself. I'd never seen that done before; I just assumed that the body would go inside the earth and dirt on top of it, but apparently not. The whole thing was then covered up, and a small tree was planted in the middle. A prayer was offered (the second of three for her funeral that day) after which we all went home.

My best wishes to you and your family, hadjiboy.

My condolescences. The notes on the funeral were fascinating. Christians don't have the "bury as soon as possible", although I guess Orthodox and maybe other Jews do.

I especially love the tree part of your grandmother's funeral -- I keep thinking I want to plant a tree for my mother on my campus. Not that she attended college here (or at all), but she kissed my Dad on the Kissing Bridge once, and I thought a tree there would be good for her.

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I'm sorry for your loss. And it's interesting to hear of how things differ from here to there. Like, when my grandfather passed the funeral home took his body from the hospital and prepared it for the funeral. It seems so much nicer to have it done by people who loved and cared for them in life.

My condolences, hadjiboy.

I'm sorry for your loss, (((hadjiboy))).

And thank you for sharing the info on Muslim funerals/burials.

Christians don't have the "bury as soon as possible", although I guess Orthodox and maybe other Jews do.

The ritual washing of the dead is also part of Jewish burial in some places. Thanks for the story and I'm sorry for your loss, hadjiboy.

Sorry for your loss, hadjiboy.

((((((((((hadjiboy))))))))))

I'm sorry for your loss, but how amazing it is that your grandmother was a hundred years old. How much she must have seen and experienced in her lifetime, with all the changes India has gone through in the last 100 years.

The notes on the funeral were fascinating. Christians don't have the "bury as soon as possible", although I guess Orthodox and maybe other Jews do.

The tradition of Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Jewish funerals taking place within 24 hours arises from those religions having their roots in hot countries. Needs must.

My background is Jewish, and my Irish Catholic ex-husband used to think that Jewish funerals took place with a haste that smacked almost of foul play, whereas I thought his countrymen's habit of leaving the body lying in the front room for a week while everyone traipsed in to see it was pretty disgusting.

I am sorry for your loss, but I'm also impressed with her longevity. And thanks for the insight into your funeral traditions. I'm always fascinated by the different traditions each culture/religion has.