I went to a funeral years ago of a close friend who had become inactive, stopped attending meetings. The elders wouldn't allow his family to have a kingdom hall funeral - so his non-JW family had his funeral at a neutral building where they have services for funerals and about 10 different people took turns ; including myself getting up in front of the crowd ( probably 200 people about half JW's / half non-JW's ) speaking about my friend who had died and remembering his humor and good qualities .
There were a fair number of elders in the room including the ones who wouldn't allow his funeral at a kingdom hall . My friend had told me before he died that he was upset that those same elders never took the time to pay attention or call on his older teenage kids or take an interest in them. So in my eulogy - I made sure to reference that point by saying " before my friend died he was concerned that some people here -elders here were not paying enough attention to his dear two children. " I continued, " The best way we can honor and remember our friend is by making sure we pay attention to them now or continue to see how they are doing. "
But it was a great atmosphere of various folks giving out warm memories of my friend and talking about humorous times. If the WT Society would stop being so emotionally constipated and make funerals more about the person who died instead of marketing WT information- these funerals would be much more enjoyable, or at least bearable. But the WT Society is a cold hearted organization - won't ever happen