It's very cathartic. A day or two before a funeral for a major loss in my family I had been experiencing the sadness and grief, but hadn't fully grasped the loss. During the services I was inconsolable. I found myself thinking about how the services had made it worse, until afterwards when we all went to a family member's home for lunch. I guess the service helped us let out a lot of emotions together. I found myself joking and laughing with my brother at the dinner table two hours after he had to hold me up when I dropped to the ground after seeing the opened casket. Granted, the days and weeks after were equally difficult in other ways, but I know it was important for us to be together and it's what our loved one would've definitely wanted. Funerals can push the family together when they're not usually close. It's sad it's under the worst circumstances, and this sounds so cliche, but I don't think I would've processed and allowed myself to grieve if services weren't held.