Everyone Goes to Heaven
I was in my last lecture in Developmental Psychology when the thought struck me, “Everyone goes to Heaven!” Ironically, we were reflecting on that stage of life which is as inevitable as the birth process or maturation, the experience of death. In recent times, our society, like many others, has been going through a number of cultural changes so that how we express who we are in moments of joy and sadness has undergone somewhat of a metamorphosis.
Like many Barbadians, I am old enough to remember some of the now discarded traditions relating to death. I was told that there was a time when the body was lovingly washed, plugged and dressed, all at home. The sanitized funeral home experience with several days of refrigeration before the family arrive from “over and away” was rare. Death was a community experience and when the person died at home, which was often, friends and neighbours, seemingly the whole village, would visit the home to view the body before it was taken away….