The Last Refusal

There were a few things to consider, of course. The coffin had to remain closed during the funeral.

My grandmother spent her later years avoiding people, and it seemed cruel to let them gather around and look at her from the top down. To look at her in her most vulnerable position, a position where she could neither return their gaze nor turn away.

When my grandfather and her children asked to see her, I said no. Because death didn’t grant them permission she had withheld in this life, nor the next.

Neither did grief, nor the need for forgiveness.