Cemeteries II-Lewis

I still remember the first time I saw Lewis and his wife Anna (as I will call them in this blog). It was in the very simple store-front church at 232 Tai Po Rd., Kowloon Hong Kong. I estimated that the combined weight of the two of them was less than 200 pounds. They sat among a large group of White Russians who, like them, had just finally been released from 6 years of Mao Tze Tung- imposed house arrest in Beijing. Somehow or other they made it to Hong Kong and got across the border. Lewis and Anna were not White Russians; they were American citizens, Lutherans at that.

Of course, Jane and I took them home for Sunday dinner and helped them eventually find a very small cramped upper story tenement house apartment - no elevator. Not long afterward I received word that Lewis had been taken by ambulance to the hospital. The attendant there told me his situation was grave, accentuated by the fact that the stairway to his apartment had been too narrow for him to be carried down on stretcher and so his body had been severely traumatized before he got to the hospital room. Fellow missionary George Winkler joined me there. I remember George recalling that Lewis had spoken German as a child. So George prayed the Lord’s Prayer in German. Within minutes we closed Lewis’s eyes in death.

We took Anna to our home. Jane invited Anna to sleep in the same bed with her that night.

Burial space in Hong Kong is severely limited. We arranged for a space in the Kowloon Christian Cemetery. Next I had to find a coffin and make arrangements for embalming. I found the coffin making shop. I till remember quite clearly standing on the sidewalk next to the narrow shop in which the coffins were being hewn. I really did not want a Chinese style coffin and negotiated as best I could for a somewhat more Western-style wooden coffin. My memory is that I finally secured it for HK$200.00 (about US$35.00).

The Memorial service was solemn. Then the four wiry-legged coffin bearers put their ropes around the coffin, suspended it from their bamboo poles across their shoulders and started up the very steep hillside toward the grave-site. Several hundred yards up the hill they stopped. They set the coffin down. They spoke to me in agitated tones. My Chinese language ability was quite limited at that time but I soon got the message, “This is more of a climb than we negotiated for. This coffin sits right here until our increased fee is paid.” I paid it. Our small entourage, including frail Anna, proceeded up the hill.

Once we got to the grave-site (no fancy artificial grass or anything other than bare dirt there) I was awed by the care shown by the coffin bearers. Two of them got into the grave. The other two lowered the coffin. They went to great length to make sure the coffin was positioned just right. They wanted it on a slight incline with the head above the lower body, the entire orientation toward the ocean. They checked repeatedly with me to ensure that everything was just right. It was all done with reverence and respect for the deceased. Then they left the grave. We concluded the service with the traditional “Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust.”