Sorry for your loss, I think I understand the flavor.

My grandfather-father-figure died a week ago. He was the most interesting person I've ever personally known, like a 1000 year old vampire. Alzheimer's disease ate away all that interestingness in a few years. The death was gradual as I see it, hardly preventable. Definitely motivates me to try to prevent such losses in the future. Cue a traditional funeral with promises of a different kind of eternal life. The daft ideas are a mockery of who he was at his peak.