It’s not how I would do it but …,

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As well as making sandwiches and baking buns, I’ve observed that following a death where I live, move and have my being, people wash windows in preparation for a funeral. It’s not exactly a traditional custom, but more of an instinctive reaction. There is some gut impulse among a lot of people to get busy, to ready the house for visitors, and so in some way to honour the dead. The deceased will usually be brought home to lie in their open coffin in the living room (the irony of laying the dead out in what we call the living room is usually lost in the welter of crying and grief) and for the glass in the windows to be dirty would be quite shameful. So the task is given to a responsible lady known always to keep clean windows in her front room. Of course the windows are curtained and the sun must not penetrate into the room so no-one will be aware of the state of the windows, but that matters not. So long as the windows are said to be clean that’s the main thing, and the lying in state and the funeral can go ahead without any shame. The hands of the clock will be stopped at the hour of death, mirrors will be covered up and a child will be posted at the gate to intercept the postman, the milkman, the bread man and any other men who come on non-funereal business. The tick man will not be allowed in under any circumstances and that particular prohibition will be stretched out as long as possible. All these habits and arrangements actually seem to help.