Relocate funeral parlours out of town centre

LAST week, I attended a relative’s wake service at a funeral parlour in Seremban.

In the past, people would hold their wake services in their place of residence and people would come to their house to pay their last respects to the dead.

Today, people keep the body in a funeral parlour and hold the wake services at the funeral parlour. It is a modern concept.

And it was my first visit to the funeral parlour.

The funeral parlour was located in a row of shoplots at a busy main road.

There was no parking space in front of the funeral parlour.

Parking was a big problem and people had to park their cars away from the funeral parlour.

The funeral parlour was sandwiched between another funeral parlour and a shoplot.

The funeral parlour was small and during the funeral service, it could not accommodate the large crowd.

People had to stand outside the parlour.

The heavy traffic outside the funeral parlour was a distraction and the funeral parlour looked out of place among the other shoplots.

Funeral parlours and funeral halls play an important role for nonMuslims to hold wake services.

The culture and practice of putting up tents and canopies in front of their houses on the road for funerals should be checked.

Some of the tents spread across a few houses and the adjacent road is closed and neighbourhood cars have to take a diversion or use an alternative route.

Chairs and tables are laid on the road under the tent. Cars are parked haphazardly along the road in the area.

Sometimes the tents and canopies are put across the narrow road for days and it can cause much inconvenience and problems to the neighbours and road users.

Sometimes the wake services are held for two or three nights.

Neighbours have to bear with the inconvenience, all in the name of being neighbourly and friendly.

If there is a funeral hall in the housing project, the wake service could be carried out at the hall and it would not inconvenience anyone.

What happens when a person dies in a flat or an apartment?

New public and private housing projects should have funeral halls for nonMuslims to hold their wake and funeral services.

And hopefully, private funeral parlours are located at strategic locations with ample parking facilities.

Preferably, funeral parlours should be away from the town centre. And finally, the rates should be reasonable.

SAMUEL YESUIAH Seremban