My thoughts on life and death as a retired funeral director

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My thoughts on life and death as a retired funeral director

As a retired, long-time funeral director, I can summarize in one sentence (although it seems absurd) what death is: Death is only the beginning of life!!

I say this because just recently I saw a wonderful Japanese movie called "Departures".
It is one of the most emotional and uplifting movies I have seen in many many years.
I highly recommend everyone to see this marvelous picture.

"Departures" can be rented from NetFlix. It comes with English subtitles.
It won the 2009 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film.
It is a powerfully moving, heart-warming, funny, life-affirming, wonderful humanistic story.
It will make you laugh, it will make you cry and again it will make you laugh.
And, in the end, it will bring you tears of joy.

It will lift you up emotionally and spiritually.
It is an unusual story about an unemployed man who accepts a job as what is known as a sub-contractor to an undertaker (called nokanshi in Japanese) in rural Japan.

The closest equivalent to this type of work (here in the U.S.) is the so-called "first call" company, a company that sends a person or two to make the removal of the deceased, for example, from a residence.
It is a type of work that most people in Japan (as well as in the U.S.) stay away from.

After seeing this amazing movie, I began once again to think about life and death.
So I pulled out my old post (of 2007) and decided to share my thoughts with you all.

Here it is:
DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF LIFE!!
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com/2008/10/death-is-only-beginning-of-life.html

-from Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com