A Mime Attended a Stranger’s Funeral. The Deceased Had an Unusual Request: ‘Did He Know a Mime?’
She had to hold back her tears as a mime during the stranger's funeral.
Brittany Loren (@alta_ray_star) a mime, is no stranger to celebrations and events. But two recent funerals she went to brought her to tears.
“I have two funerals this weekend, and I didn’t know either of them,” Loren told TikTok. Loren is a full-time entertainer, and she was hired to be a mime for one of the funerals. She quipped that she was “breaking character” for speaking about the experience online, but she continued.
“This is actually the first time I’ve done a funeral event. It was really cool to be a part of. It was very different, and each one wants something different,” Loren said. She explained that the deceased at the first funeral she went to had a request.
“The person who passed had one last wish—that a mime come to his funeral. Not to entertain the guests or make a scene,” Loren said. She also said she was not required to do any gags or routines during the funeral. Instead, Loren was asked to wander, to smile, and to look at photos. She was also tasked to do something crucial for the deceased—to pique his guests’ curiosity.
“Who’s the mime? Why are they here? Did he know a mime?” Loren explained. It would send his guests’ minds on a hunt for answers, the same way this man searched after his deceased mother hid his inheritance in her home. But in Loren’s case, her presence itself and the wonder it brought were the entertainment for the deceased man’s funeral. The mime agreed, sharing that she’s already had many deaths in her life. She thought she could handle being at a stranger’s funeral, but ended up learning more about him through others.
A mime today, a clown tomorrow
“I learned that he died way too young. He left an entire family, a wife, three children—adult children, but children nonetheless,” Loren reminisced. She said that the man loved animals and his grandchildren. In return, the man was loved.
“I learned that he was a good father, a good husband, and had a great sense of humor. And I, the whole time, had to stifle my tears,” the entertainer said. She thought that it didn’t feel right to cry over a stranger who had just passed. Nevertheless, the daughter of the deceased man reached out to Loren to thank her for fulfilling her father’s last wish.
The woman wrote, “I want to say thank you for fulfilling my dad’s last wish to have a mime at his funeral. To hear what you had to say about him and being there moved me in so many ways. It brings me joy and peace knowing my dad had such an influence on others (even a stranger at his funeral). The world is so amazing and it brought me to happy tears hearing what you had to say.”
But Loren still had another funeral to go to. For the next event, she was hired to be a clown. “And tomorrow, my job is talking, entertaining, twisting balloons, doing face painting because the majority of the people who will be going are other children,” Loren revealed. But after going to the funeral, Loren said she hoped to get more opportunities like it. Although she was in tears about the child’s passing, she was happy to help the family as an entertainer. In any event, entertainers are expected to make the best of a situation—whether it’s a funeral or a 9/11 themed wedding.
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