Many have sent me very kind notes, on occasion of my wife Germana's passing. A reply sent to a Canadian friend gives some idea of what took place---with the very efficient participation of the Goan Rites people here. I copy that note, for sharing with you:
AN E-REPLY-NOTE, TO A CANADIAN FRIEND; SHARED WITH YOU: So nice to hear from you, and fond greeting to you and all Family. Yes, Germana really was 'a good ole girl'. She always told me that when she passed she did not want to be 'put in a box', but to be laid to rest in 'the way the Hindus do it'. So in the morning my kindly Hindu neighbor got the boys together, and by noon there was ready a beautiful 'pallet', made of fresh cut bamboo and cushioned with banana leaves; she was carried on this, wrapped in a white linen 'winding sheet' to the outdoor cremation ground; it was just at the sunset hour; this same Hindu neighbor showed me how to balance the clay water-pot on my shoulder, circle three times, and then smash it on the ground---before handing me the flaming torch to light the pyre. A Jesuit priest friend of ours, who had in fact brought her 'sacrament of the sick' just a few days before, said the final prayers; evening birds could be heard, calling from those gorgeous 'banyon trees' (which Indians hold as sacred) towering above us. Of course the Colonial system made of her a European Christian, but I'd say that she (like a lot of other Goans/Indians) have always remained Hindu---'at the deep heart's core'. A few days from now her sister will be here from Mumbai, and we will immerse the urn and its precious contents in the waters of the River Mandovi---which empties into the Arabian Sea---and finally merges with the Indian Ocean. Dan Driscoll.
