Aunt Dorothy Funeral

Aunt Dorothy Funeral Written by Mel Brake "And then, I will rise nor more sorrow no more pain and then I will rise when he calls my name.." I thought about my nephew at Aunt Dorothy's funeral I wondered who would mourn for me when I was loss I watched as young people ran out of the church after viewing Aunt Dorothy's white gold trimmed coffin Who would be visibly upset and be a fool for me Besides the young do not know how to handle the loss of a loved one My nephew called me during her service when I spoke to him I thought he wanted something from me But he said that he was calling me because he remembered I was at the funeral I then broke down into a crying walk I cried not for Aunt Dorothy I cried for myself and my lost youth I cried for my sister because she lost her health contracted Lupus in that same nursing home near the church Aunt Dorothy was eulogized in I cried for my other sister who lost her mind gave up her Baptist faith and married a Jehovah Witness man he was from that same neighborhood I cried for my mother because she lost the love of her life he would visit us in our home on 3850 Parrish street near the church Aunt Dorothy was eulogized in I cried for my big brother and the lost of our closeness he worked in a machine shop in that same neighborhood He would take me downtown on the 40 bus that still runs in that dilapidated neighborhood I cried for the lost of $1000 that my other brother stole Money that my mother and brother raised to send me the first one in the family to go to college in that hell whole of a neighborhood I cried for the lost of my neighbor who was gay and he had an operation to become a white woman and married a white man who drove a Mercedes But he moved out of that hell whole of a neighborhood I cried for the young children who I befriended who were lost themselves in that neighborhood to drugs violence and prison and early childhood pregnancy I cried for the older neighbors and friends who have also passed I sat on the front porch and I would listen to the stories they told about how safe Philadelphia used to be when the neighborhoods looked after every child's safety I cried and cried and cried until I could not cry anymore walking the streets of the neighborhood that I grew up in what we called the Bottom When I walked back to the church the hearse had moved on with Aunt Dorothy the family was gone and the church doors were locked I thought about Aunt Dorothy and the passing of the torch She was the matriarchy of the family and the Mother of the Church what was her parting words and legacy we suffered a great loss Then she as an ancestor spoke “If you loved me keep my commandments” “Love thy neighborhood and thy enemy as you would love thyself”.