As a bagpiper, I was once asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or friends.
The funeral was to be held at a new cemetery in the remote countryside and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.
As I was not familiar with the area, I became lost and being a typical man, did not ask for directions.
I finally arrived - an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew who were eating lunch but the hearse was nowhere in sight.
I apologized to the gravediggers for my lateness and stepped to the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid already in place.
I assured the workers I wouldn’t hold them up for long but that this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I played my heart and soul out.
As I played, the gravediggers began to weep. I played like I'd never played before, from ‘Going Home’ and ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’ to ‘Flowers of the Forest’. I closed the session with ‘Amazing Grace’, then solemnly and quietly walked to my car.
As I opened the car door, I overheard one of the workers say to another, "I’ve never seen anything like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
