No Services for the Cremated?

my uncle's will left money for a good eat/drink fest at his favourite Greek restaurant for about 20 people

my aunt organized a big formal event that suited how she wanted to memorialize my uncle - then we had his party the way he wanted

The way I live these days it's not likely I will organize much of anything. But if there is interest, I will encourage and join in.

Your post reminds me of a movie I used to love..

Now to remember the name of it plus the plot...
nabbed the name fairly fast, but need to look up the details: The Return of the Secaucus 7; I liked it better than The Blg Chill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Secaucus_7
wiki clip:

Critical response

Film critic Emanuel Levy liked the film and wrote, "The movie became influential, launching a cycle of "reunion" films, which included The Big Chill and the TV series Thirtysomething. As a portrait of disenchantment, Return was more authentic and honest than Lawrence Kasdan's star-studded Big Chill...A rueful movie about unexceptional lives that have prematurely grown stale, Secaucus is a bit commonplace, lacking genuine drama. But Sayles uses effectively a discursive, episodic format; he constructs strong scenes with resonant dialogue. The characters are complex and individually distinguished by speech, gesture, and manner."[6]

Critic Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat wrote, "Here's a nice little movie about the baby boom generation...Novelist John Sayles wrote, directed, and edited this movie. It is a labor of love. We watch these laidback individuals share their stories and reminisce about the past...But these baby boomers can't handle tension; the rift between Jeff and Maura sends tremors through the weekend. And although they put up a front of having a good time, one senses that things haven't turned out well for them — either in terms of meaningful relationships or in terms of personal fulfillment. Return of the Secaucus Seven leaves one with a rueful feeling about this generation."[7]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on eleven reviews.[8]

Film critic Aljean Harmetz of The New York Times wrote in her review: "For a movie that cost $60,000, The Return of the Secaucus Seven is traveling in heady company. Most $60,000 movies play at two film festivals, then end up on a 16-millimeter projector in their director's living room. The Return of the Secaucus Seven, about seven antiwar activists who spend a weekend together 10 years later, was the surprise hit of last spring's Los Angeles Filmex festival. The movie was also selected as one of the 10 best films of 1980 by The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times and Time magazine, and last week it was nominated by the Writers Guild as best comedy written directly for the screen. When it opened an unsuccessful commercial run in New York last September, Vincent Canby, although expressing some reservations, praised the film as sweet and engaging and an honest, fully realized movie. Today it will try again, opening at the Quad in Greenwich Village this time.[9][10]
``````````````````````````````````

What I still don't remember for sure is: was there a funeral in it (or, in The Big Chill).

Brilliant, lmur.

I've mentioned my rich uncle a few times at a2k. We were wildly different people, far as I know. He and other irish types were mixed in with the Hollywood movie industry very early. I think he led the Bostonian family to LA some time circa 1920.

My father, from northern California, got to a good school of the time, St. Louis U, but had to leave to take care of his mother (older brother was first in line, was at Harvard, how, I've no idea). So, my dad took himself to LA, and started in as a film editor in 1926, or thereabouts.

The Boston brothers became studio heads, or similar. Their sister, my mother, married my dad, who was a bit different. He went to Santa Clara U, wrote poetry. I may remember he was poet laureate there one year, not sure. Was interested in medicine, started at St. Louis U, had to leave, as I said. Years as a film editor. Begged to sign up, despite having bad eyes, in early '42 (I have the letters, plus the eyes). Eventually became a full colonel with long stories. That isn't why I loved him. I loved him for talking with me even when he had his own difficulties.

Actually, in those times, he is the one who taught me how both reason and converse.

I still miss him.

Never saw the movie but it became so popular that I picked up a pretty good sense of what it was about just from secondary discussions. It inspired a very short-lived TV series called "Hometown".