Death Rituals

I've had this one line that I wrote a long long time ago that I love. It's been the first line of at least 2 works that never got finished (for a myriad of reasons) and I really really really want to use that line. I'm thinking maybe now, with April's Camp NaNo coming up, I'll use it for a project featuring that line, and something revolving around death rituals. One of my favorite stories is that of Antigone. When a person dies, there are just things to do and things you don't do - which varies from culture to culture.

I remember, for my grandfather, my mother and grandmother insisted on a traditional Chinese ritual where we work white and tied cloth to our hair. During any instances of procession, everyone was lined from eldest to youngest. As we passed the casket in the viewing, we'd place ceremonial money and bow three times with incense. He was cremated and his remains were held in an ancestral alter until my grandmother passed, then his remains and portrait were buried with her.

For my grandmother, in addition to the ceremonial money, incense, and bowing, we did a very western thing. At her grave site, each person took a handful of earth and tossed it into the grave after the casket was lowered.

I was recently reading this article about a young girl who has complications during surgery and bled too much. She's been pronounced brain dead and multiple doctors have said that she would not live without the aid of breathing and feeding tubes. The girl's parents insist that the child is still alive due to a heartbeat and used the courts to keep the hospital from removing life support and they were able to get her moved to a facility that would keep the girl on life support indefinitely. Currently, the mother is attending the child - painting her fingernails, brushing her hair, while hospital staff work with the body in a measure of physical therapy. The parents cling to the hope that their child will wake up.

It just made me wonder, what happens to the souls who are in that in-between space of life/death due to things like life support?