Date: February 21, 2017
Time: Noon
Location: Dirac Starbucks
Topic discussed: Funeral Arrangements
Lesson Learned: Today I didn't learn much of a lesson. Instead, my conversation partner asked me about American funeral customs. Noting that the U.S. is full of different cultures and customs, I shared with her my personal funeral experiences. It seemed like she learned a lot of new vocabulary. We talked about death certificates, exsanguination, opened caskets vs. closed caskets, viewings, eulogies, burials, cremation, and customary responses to those in mourning. I didn't even know I knew as much as I did.
Although it was a morbid topic of conversation, this seemed to help my conversation partner relate to a friend dealing with the death of a loved one. I may have also helped her to avoid a critical incident. She stated that it is customary to provide the family with money and asked if we do that in the United States. I shared that unless help is explicitly requested, the provision of any monetary support would be looked at as a faux-pas. Americans may misinterpret this as profiting off of the loss of a loved one.
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