So my mother calls me on Thanksgiving Thursday and tells me about a fellow in her KH that I knew quite well. He grew a beard years ago and stopped field recruiting, but kept going to the KH several times a month as his wife was still active. The elders never really tried to show concern for his depression, but always bugged him about the beard. Mom tells me that he overdosed on prescription drugs.
The wife decided to have him cremated and didn't know about what the elders would be willing to do about a memorial for him. He was a JW in good (and inactive) standing and everyone saw him on a regular basis at the KH and his wife had money troubles and told them she wasn't going to have a funeral home service but would appreciate "something" at the Kingdom Hall.
Well, of course the first thing the elders do is call Headquarters and see if it's okay. It was okay to have a memorial.
The next thing they do is try to get one elder to agree to do the talk. It's a standard outline/recruiting talk. That should be no big deal.
One elder reluctantly agreed to do it, then backed out saying it bothered his conscience to do a talk for an inactive JW who committed suicide.
So another elder who has given such talks before just did it without having any real input from the wife or family about anything specific about the guy. It was just the standard outline/recruiting memorial talk.
I would have gone. Despite my desire to never go to such things, I know this wife and I always said that I would go to a funeral at the KH if it helped a living person to have my presence. After such a blow of rejection as "Your husband isn't worthy of my giving the talk" this wife could use all the 'friends' she can get. But it was on Saturday, decided at the last minute, while I was locked into my work schedule. So I could not go.
I don't know what kind of turnout they had at the hall. My mother was vague with "a good turnout." There was a gathering at a restaurant and it seems that only family and very close friends showed up.