The Funeral Society

The black limousine drove up at exactly 11:30, just as the voice on the telephone had promised. The back door opened from within. A young woman dressed in white silk evening gown beckoned her to enter. Jennifer slid into red velvet seat and pulled the door closed.

The woman drew closed curtains separating them from the driver. The side windows were already covered with red velvet curtains, as was the rear window. Jennifer could not see out in any direction.

"We trust that you will not mind this security precaution" said the white gowned woman. "Occasionally one of our clients has second thoughts later on. That is quite all right, but we can not risk having the location of our facilities revealed."

The limousine pulled away. They drove on through the city, turning this way and that until Jennifer had lost all sense of direction.

The woman beside her identified herself merely as Karen, a delivery person for the society. She asked various questions, confirming and clarifying the information from previous correspondence. The questions concerned her preferences in dress, decor for the service, details of the service itself and its follow-up. Karen asked the questions in a matter-of fact tone that Jennifer found a bit surprising.

Having completed the formalities Karen continued with less formal conversation. She told how she had joined the society eight months ago. She had found the experience so uplifting that she had scheduled her own service for her twenty-first birthday, in about four months. She said she was ***********ing the best from the many services she had attended. She particularly liked Jennifer's choice of calla lilies as the central floral theme because their pure unadorned elegance seemed especially suitable to the event.

On they drove through the night. They had left the city now and were traveling at a high, steady speed, without slowing or turning. After what seemed like hours the limousine slowed and turned off the highway onto a side road. The pace was slower now as the road wound back and forth around numerous sharp curves. Jennifer had the feeling that they were slowly climbing as the limousine drove steadily on.

Finally, they made a sharp right turn and came to a stop. After a waiting a few minutes, they pulled ahead slowly and again stopped. A last the engine was shut off.

"We have arrived" said Karen "If you will please follow me"

Her attendant stepped from the limousine, walked around to Jennifer's door and opened it.

Jennifer stepped out into a clean, well lit garage. Her attendant lead her to a door that opened into a short hallway, up several stairs, through another door and into the reception hall.

The reception hall was a large room, brightly lit and walled in white marble. The walls hung with antique tapestries. Several large chairs upholstered in burgundy velvet were positioned around the perimeter of the room. The floor, like the walls, was of pure white marble. It was covered with one, vast, oriental rug. From the room, hallways led off in several directions. Their entries were covered with burgundy velvet curtains.

Karen beckoned her to one of the velvet chairs. "Kathleen, your guide and head attendant, will be with you shortly"

With this she turned and disappeared down one of the hallways.

At first, the room seemed totally silent. Then Jennifer noticed the gentle tones of an organ. The notes seemed faint and far away, yet seemed to emanate from every corner of the room, surrounding and enveloping her with soft, peaceful music.

Just as Jennifer was becoming entranced with the tune, another young woman appeared from one of the hallways. Like Karen, she too was dressed in a long white gown of shimmering silk.

"Welcome, Jennifer. My name is Kathleen. I will be your guide and personal attendant for the entire ceremony. All the preparations have been completed in accordance with your requests. If you will follow me, I will give you a tour of our facilities and show you the arrangements for your service. This will give you a preview of what is to come and allow you to make any last changes or requests."

She led the way down one of the hallways, passing rooms on both sides. The hall was decorated as elegantly as the reception room. It was floored in rich burgundy carpet and paneled in a dark wood. The way was lit by small gas lamps along the walls.

Kathleen stopped at the entrance to one of the rooms. A small, gold lettered sign beside the door read:

GOWNING ROOM C

RESERVED 4/23/93

JENNIFER CALLIES

They entered the room.

The room seemed sparsely furnished for its size. A the burgundy carpet of the hall floored this room also. The same dark paneling covered the walls.

The room was dominated by two items. At one end of the room was a large, marble topped dressing table. The mirror over the dressing table was surrounded with lights. A full length mirror was attached to the wall beside the table.

At the opposite end of the room a large bathtub was set flush to the floor. It was being filled with steaming water. A rich odor of cedar and cinnamon arose with steam of the foaming bath.

"This is where you will dress and be prepared for the ceremony." Kathleen said. "A bath before dressing in your gown is traditional practice and will help relax the tension most of our clients feel before their ritual. The scent you notice comes from special oils added to the bath. In addition to their pleasant perfuming properties, they have preservative effects that minimize the need for further treatments after your rite is completed."

This was all straight forward and Jennifer had no questions. With her guide leading, she left the gowning room through a door on the opposite wall. The door opened into a corridor similar in decor to the one from which they had entered the room, but wider and with a high vaulted ceiling.

The floor sloped gently downward in the direction which Kathleen led. They had not walked far before the hall converged with three others in a large circular room with a high domed ceiling.

Large double doors dominated the opposite wall. Each door was decorated with a large cross surrounded by smaller religious symbols. Two large bouquets of pure white calla lilies flanked the doors.

Her guide led her to the double doors, then stopped and turned. Jennifer noticed that her expression had suddenly become much more grave.

"This is the chapel where your ceremony will take place. We have tried to match your requests as closely as possible regarding dress and decor for the service. I hope you will find it satisfactory. For the purposes of this tour we have recreated the scene as it will appear at the climax of the ceremony. This will allow you your one chance to see a part of the ceremony as an observer rather than a participant. Your place has been taken by a mannequin created from the photograph and other information provided in your application. The result is quite realistic. I am telling you this in part as a admonition. I have found that for most of our clients this is the first time that they have been faced with the full impact of what they have chosen to do. I urge you to notice first and foremost the beauty and tranquillity of what you are about to see. This will make the aspect of finality less shocking. If you are ready, we can go in"

After a couple of deep breaths Jennifer responded "I am ready."

Kathleen swung the doors outward. The chamber before her was lit by the soft glow of candlelight. On either side of the center aisle bouquets consisting of a single calla lily flanked by small white rose buds were tied with white satin bows and attached to the ends of each pew. A white velvet cloth covered the center aisle floor.

Jennifer's attention was draw immediately to the front of the chapel. There stood four young women, all about her own age. They were dressed in floor length gowns of black silk. There faces were covered by short veils that hung from floral wreath headpieces. They stood in pairs at either end of an open casket.

Wreaths of white roses stood at either end of the casket. A large bouquet of calla lilies had been placed directly in front. A garland of white roses and ivy was draped from the lid. The casket rested on a bier draped with white satin cloth trimmed with gold embroidery. The casket was lined with pleated white satin and trimmed with lace.

Jennifer's knees felt weak as she approached the casket. She had to force herself to look within, but then she was immediately transfixed. The woman's form within the casket could have been her twin. Truly it was like seeing herself lying there.

Every detail was as she had imagined it. The figure within the casket was dressed in an ivory satin bridal gown. A long veil formed an ivory cloud about her shoulders and extended down around her sides all the way to the foot of the casket. The veil was, as yet, folded back over the satin pillow. Long golden hair flowed down over her shoulders, framing a face that seemed peacefully asleep.

Her satin gloved hands were folded at the waist and held a single calla lily tied with a satin bow.

Jennifer stood for a long time gazing at the figure in the casket. After the initial amazement passed, she stepped closer and gently folded down the veil, covering the face in the casket with a mist of silk illusion. As she stood staring down, transfixed by the scene before her, the initial feeling of shock slowly gave way to a deep longing for the perfect peace that was displayed before her. The only though she could find words for was: "This is what I will look like when I am dead" The thought echoed through her mind again and again, first as a question, than as statement of fact that gave her a wonderful sense of confidence in her decision to actively seek her own death.

Suddenly Jennifer felt very tired. She straightened and looked around. How long had she been standing here? The candles at either end of the casket were noticeably shorter. The black veiled pallbearers were gone. At first she thought she was totally alone. Then she noticed Kathleen sitting quietly in the back pew.

"I trust everything is satisfactory?" asked her guide quietly.

"Satisfactory?" queried Jennifer, "It's wonderful! More beautiful than I could ever imagine!"

She was eager now to become a part of this scene rather than just an observer, and her eagerness became apparent.

"In spite of all my carefully planning, I could not really picture what my funeral would be like. You have shown me that passage from this life will be an experience more beautiful and miraculous than anything I have even dreamed of! My only comment is when do we begin?"

"Soon," her guide responded, "I would like to show you your crypt, then we will return to the gowning room to begin preparing you for the service."

Jennifer took a last look around the chapel, and in that brief moment noticed more details than in the all the time she stood transfixed before her casket. She noticed the soft flicker of the candlelight, the glow of the satin gown, the rich texture of the oak casket. She was aware for the first time of the sweet fragrance of cedar mixed with the perfume of flowers and the musty odor of incense. She heard for the first time the soft tones of Gregorian chant that filled the room. All of this combined to create a perfect feeling of this as a place that was both sacred and magic.

They left the chapel the same way they had entered. From the outer hall they entered a large passage that sloped steeply downward. The passage ended in front of a large wrought iron double door. Above the door was a marble plaque bearing these words:

"Peace Eternal to All Who Rest Within"

Beyond the doors the passage was lined with brick. It was narrower and much darker, being lit at infrequent intervals with small lamps. The air was cool, dry and permeated with the sweet perfume of cedar and flowers mixed with the musty odor of basement bricks.

A short distance beyond the iron doors the floor ran level and branched into a maze of passages. Along each wall was a series of doors. Affixed to the wall beside each door was a bronze plaque bearing a name and date. Kathleen confirmed Jennifer's guess that each door was the entrance to a private mausoleum. The plaques bore the name of the occupant and their date of death.

Kathleen stopped before one of the doors. The plaque bore a woman's name and a recent date. Quietly, almost reverently, she opened the door and beckoned for Jennifer to enter. The room they entered was round and about 10 feet across. The brick walls arched to a domed ceiling about 10 feet high. In the center of the room an open casket lay on a stone altar. The bier was draped in pink satin and surrounded with flowers.

A single flickering gas lamp stood at the head of the casket. It illuminated the body of a young women of about her own age. She was dressed in a pale pink gown of satin and lace and appeared to be peacefully asleep.

They stood in silence before the open casket for a few minutes. Then her guide turned and led Jennifer out of the crypt. She closed the door as quietly as she had opened it and proceeded down the passage.

A little further on Kathleen stopped at another door. Jennifer read the plaque beside the door:

Jennifer Lynn Callis

April 23, 1993

As she read her own name and today's date the excitement began to grow again.

"In just a few hours" she thought to herself "I will be brought here in my casket, dressed in bridal white to lie at peace forever!"

Her guide opened the door and led Jennifer inside. The gas lamp that stood at the head of the bare stone altar had not been lit. The only light was what penetrated from the passage outside.

"This, as I'm sure you realize, is your crypt. We stopped at the other crypt to give you an idea what it will be like when you are brought here and all the arrangements are complete. Had you elected closed casket internment you would have been brought here directly from the chapel. As it is we will spend some time preparing you for your grave. The treatments you will receive after your death will allow you to be interred in an open casket. Our techniques are very effective but do have limits. Eventually, long after all of us have joined you in the crypts, your casket will be closed."

Your crypt is rather bare now. However, when you are brought here after your funeral we will also bring all the flowers from the chapel and the pall from your bier. I believe you would find the decor most satisfactory.

Jennifer looked at the vacant bier and remembered the scene in the chapel. She imagined herself lying here on a satin covered bier, surrounded with flowers, in perfect peaceful silence.

"How long does it take" she asked her guide "until the catholicon takes effect?"

"Any where from a few minutes to several hours depending on the dose. For your service we planned a moderately strong dose. Your death will occur during your funeral service, as you requested."

Jennifer asked " would it be possible to change the dose? After seeing this place I would like to be brought here before I die. That will be a perfect experience: To dress in my own burial gown, lie within my casket as a witness to my own funeral, and finally to know, if only for a few minutes, the perfect peace of my own grave."

Kathleen smiled approvingly "consider it done!"

From that moment events were a blur of excited activity. They returned to gowning room. Jennifer was barely aware of the foaming bath with its fragrant oils. Her gown slid over her like water: soft, smooth, and flowing. She sat before the mirror as her attendants arranged her hair and positioned her veil.

Almost before she knew it she was standing before the open doors of the chapel, holding a single calla lily tied with a satin bow. Before her the pallbearers, dressed in their flowing gowns of black silk, processed slowly toward the now empty casket. Jennifer followed in turn.

After a brief ceremony, Kathleen handed her the silver chalice containing the catholicon. With only a moments hesitation she lifted the chalice to her lips and drank fully of its bittersweet contents.

With her attendant's help Jennifer took her place, lying within her casket. The pallbearers arranged her veil and gown neatly about her body. For a few moments all was quiet. Jennifer lay quietly drinking in the sweet smell of flowers and the pungent odor of incense. Her gown glowed softly on the candlelight. The soft funeral chants floated through the air.

The pallbearers again stepped up. They carefully lowered the casket lid plunging Jennifer into darkness. She felt herself being lifted and carried. There was a gentle swaying as the procession made its way to the crypt.

The swaying stopped. When the casket was again opened Jennifer looked up and saw the domed ceiling of the crypt, illuminated by the lamp which had been lit at the head of her casket.

The attendants stepped back to wait. Jennifer clasped the lily tightly in her hand aware only of the complete silence that surrounded her. She felt and overwhelming sense of serenity and contentment as she drifted into a deep sleep.

In her dreams she floated up and turned to look down on her own satin shrouded body. She turned again and floated through the ceiling and was engulfed in dazzling light that was at once brighter than anything she had known but wonderfully cool and refreshing.

In the crypt, Kathleen stepped up to the casket and placed a finger against Jennifer's neck. Feeling no pulse she bent over and placed her ear near Jennifer's nose and mouth but she heard nothing. She stood up and nodded to the other attendants. She carefully lifted the veil from around Jennifer's head and lowered it gently over her face.