Story from Multiple Eyes

I was away due to family commitment. My father in law recently passed away. It was quite a chaos and I feel my life going thru storm. My wife even have it harder than me, no argument on that. It was a hard time.

Some people think that death means no more worries but having experience death first hand, I found that death could be alot more than life. Spiritually, you'll be moved to new world where all your deeds be counted for; good and bad. For all of us, life would be rewind and forward like film reels and your whole life parading in front of your eyes to be judged.

However, I'm not going to talk about spiritual aspect of death, rather the financial aspect of it. Don't get it wrong, death could cost alot. There are some sort of understanding that Chinese raise money for 3 things; marriage, children and death. Yes, funeral ceremony for Chinese very costly; if you choose so and most people choose so since they could afford it anyway.

These are the list of items that you might need to calculate on upon your death so that you could save enough money for your funeral (list is based on common Malay muslim funeral that the family have for my late father in law):

1) Kain putih, kapur barus, akar bidara, sabun, air mawar etc for "mandi jenazah" dan "kafan jenazah" - RM 400

2) Upah orang solat jenazah - RM 10 times around 60 people = RM 600

3) Pakej keranda dan van jenazah - RM 150

4) Upah mandi jenazah - RM 70 times 2 people = RM 140

5) Tid bits for visitors (biskut and air etc) - RM 100

6) Upah gali liang lahat - RM 100

7) Upah baca talkin - RM 50

TOTAL = RM 1,540

That's just funeral ceremony cost, not kenduri arwah and what not. It could cost even more depends on the area where you live. I found that it could be costly and every kariah should have funding for death or khairat kematian. At least, it will ease the grieving family. I would say it's a totally new experience for me and really wake me up.

Perhaps I should put aside money for it.