wake

noun, a watch or vigil held by relatives and friends beside the body of a dead person before burial; a gathering of friends and relatives to celebrate and remember the life of a person who has died, usu. over food and drink (“wake 1” COD); see also wake, v.

“Were you at Tom Smith’s wake?”

“I was at my great uncle’s wake, and it was 1969…”

“One of the old lady friends has passed away, and we have to go to Sydenham to a wake this evening.”

“There aren’t any, really, wakes over here on the Island anymore. They’re, you know, it’s all done in town and funeral procession. But, yeah, Uncle Len was waked in the living room.”

“Now they don’t dress for anything, go to the wakes, and that was another thing that used to bother them. I’ve heard them talk about it, going to the wake, and people come in in just a shirt or a t-shirt and a pair of pants, you know. You wouldn’t think of going to a wake without the suit and the tie and everything on in those days.”

“When you go to an Island wake, I mean I remember my granddad. It was the first one I’d ever been to. The cars- it was snow. We came across the ice, drove across the ice with the doors open. Boat wasn’t running yet. Everybody on the Island was there, and it went all day and all night. Not like the wakes you’ll go to today, two to four, seven to nine. And today there’s not really a receiving line, which I’m glad of ’cause, I mean I remember, I’ve attended Island wakes at the funeral homes most of my life, and you’re out the door, and you’re moving three inches every forty minutes.”