The small café, that was a part of, the crematorium…translated…
"Don't order from this café again, it doesn't taste good a t all", my younger sister frowned, her black coffee was, way too, bitter for her to take. Think about it, at five in the morn today, we'd all, gathered at the funeral home, the entire morning was filled with the crawling, the kneeling, we'd gotten, too stressed in the body, and our minds and hearts too, sweating all over, and finally we'd found a place to sit, wanting something cold, they'd, delivered us the hot drinks, it's only natural, that she'd felt, upset. But, who wants to do this again, we all felt, awkward, and this was even more awkward than saying goodbye to those we'd met in the funeral processions.
We are currently at a shop called "Departure Café", this was NOT an ordinary café, it's next to the crematorium, where the families are to sit and wait. On a day that's fitting for the cremations and funerals, "Departure Café" is easily, completely, occupied, without having a reservation, you'd had to, wait a bit, but, no worry, that it wouldn't take long, before the tables and seats, opened up, the turnover rate is, quite high here, with the units of families as a whole, in and out, every time, more than a dozen, the black long-shaped table sat the people, dressed in black, whose turn it was, to go and collect up the bones, the entire group would get up all together, pay the charges, and leave as a group.
Are the coffees at the Café Departure any good? The foods? I can't recall that now, perhaps, there would be the as the foods are serve, shot, to present the items as they were being, served? It wouldn't, quite fit the, occasion, I'm afraid.
I'd glanced over at the inside of the bar, it must be stressful for the employees, to need to make at least FIVE whole coffees at a time?
The wait before taking flight, everybody IS, created equal, no matter religious you're going with, Buddhism, Taoism, Catholic, Christian, or any other, as a family member, I, like all those others, glued my eyes onto the LED screen. As I'd found the name of the one I'd lost, there would be the status of "Preparing", or "Cremating", similar to the board that tells the time of departures at the airports, the elders took flight, the families seeing them off, using that weird sense of humor, to help the families who'd lost someone cope with the, pains.
the inside of the crematorium...photo from online
I'd recalled the days of the funeral, the drinks I'd ordered—"Soup prepared by the Goddess of the Wind" (black tea), and, "the Waters from the River of Forgotten" (green tea), these are, probably, the unforgettable menu items. All of these served the same purpose, to allow that sense of humor, into the too sad, too serious situation.
Finally, the screen showed that it was our families', the fire's coming, RUN! Took a gulp of the coffee from the Departure Café, imagined that the one we'd lost taking off on a jet, sent all the way, to the contents of the verses we'd recited a short while ago, the nirvana in Buddhism.
The elderly had, departed, and we'd, finished the "seeing her off" rituals, as we're, still at the, waiting area, we got up, with the directions of the funeral homes, we are, about to, go and, pick the remains of bones out, and, placing the bones in an urn, to be, set up at the tower, taking the ancestral plates home, then, we will, all sit down, for that, meal.
the employees of the crematorium, showing that final respect to the deceased before sending the coffin in, to get cremated...photo from online
That was the summer, in three short months, we'd said goodbye to my maternal grandparents, and we got served, two servings of "Café Departure", and to tell the truth, these coffees, surely were, the most bitter I'd, ever, tasted.
So, this is on the functions of that small café outside the funeral home, between the crematorium, and, death is unavoidable, and, we will all, visit these, café departures, time and time again, until our turns come too. As death, is that, inevitable, part of, life.
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