When people deal with death here in Kalskag, or when someone dies, everyone goes and pays their respect to the family. After they pay their respects to the family, they help the family out by cooking, cleaning, making the coffin, and whatever needs to be done.

    For example, when my grandpa died, it was a beautiful summer day, and it happened like a snap of the finger. They brought his body first to investigate how he died. Then they brought his body to his house, cleaned it up, and dressed him in his gown, I said gown, because he was a sub-deacon for St. Seraphim Orthodox church. There are rankings in the Orthodox religion.

      Whenever people brought food for the feast for my grandfather, they would put it at the foot of his body, so that his soul would have something to eat. That is what they do before they put the food on the feast table, because that is what we believe.

    Everyone respected my grandpa, because he was very wise, and he was well known around the Yukon-Kuskokwim area. Everyone went to pay their respects to him and his family, and helped with the food, dishes, and things around the house that needed to be done. The men from Kalskag made him a very nice coffin, and they made him an even nicer outside cover to go on top of the grave. I remember the day, the gospel singers from Tuluksak came and sang a bunch of songs, in memory of my grandfather.

     The funeral service was held three days after they put the body in the his house. See, they kept my grandpa's body in the house for one day, and then moved it to the church for another day, the third day they buried the body. On the third day, the young men helped dig a hole six feet deep. After the funeral everyone went to my grandparent's house and had a feast for him. Twenty days later there was the twenty-day feast, than twenty days later there was a forty-day feast. One year later there was a one-year feast for him, and every year on the day that he died there will always be a feast for him. Every year on the day when someone passes away, relatives and church members pray for them and never forget, because if you forget they will never be there.