The funeral boat

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

The coffin travelled downriver on a small boat because the road to the burial ground had flooded. Nora sat beside her father, watching the oars rise and fall. Her mother had disliked boats. At the thought, Nora almost smiled, then felt ashamed of finding anything familiar in the strange journey.

A current turned them towards the bank. The boatman corrected it without interrupting his rhythm. Beside the reeds, a woman washing linen paused and lowered her hands. Nora wondered whether she knew whom the coffin contained. Her father began explaining that her mother had once dropped a basket of washing from this very bank, then stopped as though the memory were unsuitable.

Nora asked him what had happened to the basket. He described chasing it downstream while her mother shouted directions that changed each time he obeyed. The story made both of them laugh once, briefly. Then the coffin’s pale cloth moved in the wind, and neither spoke for several minutes.

At the landing, her father asked whether she wished he had kept quiet. Nora said no. They lifted the small wreath they had carried and followed the coffin up the path. Behind them, the boatman began rowing back. The river continued through the place where her mother had once stood, holding the funny story and the present journey together without making either disappear.

“The passage successfully presents grief as able to contain moments of affection and humour.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this idea. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.