The picture not taken

Day Four: Today's daily photo is a picture that was not taken.
Funerals have always seemed to me to be very private events for the family and friends of the deceased. At the same time I've attended many funerals over the years and have seen many photo opportunities that you find at any other events celebrating life's milestones: the looks on the mourners faces, poingnient moments during the service and the burieal itself. That said, I still don't believe it is appropriate to take pictures at such a private event as a funeral.
So it was with the funeral I attended today. My father's 86-year-old third cousin, Helen, was laid to rest today. Though the blood relationship was not that close I sat in the same pew with Helen at church almost every Sunday for the past 12 years. Helen was always interested in what was going on in my life and I was invited many times to her house for Sunday dinner with her family. And she always enjoyed looking at my pictures. I'm going to miss Helen.
The image I remember most from today's funeral is of Helen's granddaughter Shelly, a bagpiper, leading the casket out of the church playing "Amazing Grace." Leanne and I were sitting in the back of the church so we didn't get outside until Helen's remains had been loaded in the hearse. What we saw standing at the rear of the hearse was Shelly piping the last verse of "Amazing Grace" as a light drizzle gently fell. The haunting sound drifted on the rain through that little corner of South St. Louis. I stopped a moment and took in the scene, and then..... I did not take a picture.