I personally don't mind attending funerals not merely of close relatives, but even more distant relatives, friends, friends of friends...because frequently there is food provided after the religious service. The wife says that the food should not be my main reason for attending, but we figure that we both provide the bereaved sympathetic comfort and companionship before munching the luncheon delicacies. Besides, it saves us grocery money, but which is more often than not donated to the bereaved within a sympathy card. So we don't really gain anything monetarily in such cases..

It might sound like we're pikers going in part for the sake of the food provided. But not everyone is willing to tolerate a Christian funeral service with the Scripture reading and prayers to Christ...in place of reading some poetry like:

In fact, the so-called "new tradition" is cremation with a "Save big money by just burning the stiff to be done with it all" attitude . . . . and to not be reminded at all of the strange, eerie, and weird passing of religion-declared human soul out of his or her almost-incredibly-motionless dead bodies lying perfectly still in the casket . . . of necessity bringing to mind suspicions of the existence of the supernatural -- with all the inferred moral and final judgment associations related to that, such as:

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth!"
Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is at hand; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests.

Whether such phenomenal and bizarre immobility does the corpse any good when Final Judgment Day comes depends on if when alive the now-dead carcass reposing in the casket wanted to obey those two particular verses cited above.

Having a dead body displayed in the box for the curious and the dismayed to gaze upon also brings to mind the veracity of the concept of resurrection and consequential responsibilities relating to such eventually coming back to life:

Job 19:26 . . . and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God. . .

Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. Oh dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and on the land of the shades you will let it fall.
Isaiah 28:18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through you will be beaten down by it.

John 11:24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in The Resurrection at The Last Day."

First Corinthians 15:21 For as by a man came death, by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
First Corinthians 15:52 . . . in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the Last (NOT any presumed "Pre-Trib") Trumpet. For The Trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

First Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with The Trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first . . .

Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.
Revelation 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done.

Although various types and durations of exceptions have and will occur (such as Enoch "being taken so that he did not see death," and Elijah "being taken up to heaven in a chariot and horses of fire" plus Christ Himself being resurrected and ascended into heaven and promised to return in power), the saying: "All men are mortal" is generally and inevitably true:

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God.

Psalm 49:10 Yes, he shall see that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them";
2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain;
3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look through the windows are dimmed,
4 and the doors on the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;
5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets;
6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Isaiah 38:18 For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
Until that Final Resurrection of both the Blest-to-Be and the Damned-to-Be, the motionless human form lying with death-sealed lips, rigid limbs and fingers, closed eyes, no rising chest to indicate breathing, gives obvious credence to the following:

Job 7:10 . . . he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him any more.
Job 14:12 . . . so man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be roused out of his sleep.
Job 20:9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more be aware of him.
Job 37:7 He seals up the hand of every man, that all men may know His work.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or authority over the day of death; there is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

Why do people die? Their own sins, plus the sins of duress imposed by others? The lethal pollution of the thoughtless and irresponsible? The obscene lust of the decadent? The worry and anxiety from sinfully-suppressive tyrants? The spread of infections in the workplace and school for the sake of selfish greed and reputation? The hurry-and-impatience-caused accidents?

Psalm 28:5 Because they do not regard the works of the LORD, or the work of his hands, He will break them down and build them up no more.
Psalm 37:10 Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look well at his place, he will not be there.
Psalm 37:36 Again I passed by, and, wow, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found.
Psalm 104:35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the LORD, Oh my soul! Praise the LORD!
Psalm 140:10 Let burning coals fall upon them! Let them be thrown into pits, no more to rise!

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 10:25 When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.
Proverbs 12:7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.
Proverbs 21:16 A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.

Isaiah 33:19 You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech which you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue which you cannot understand.
Isaiah 52:1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the non-circumcised and the unclean.

Jeremiah 8:3 "Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them," says the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 49:10 But I have stripped Esau (i.e. so-called "palestinian" antisemitic arabs?) bare, I have uncovered his hiding places, and he is not able to conceal himself. His children are destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.

Hosea 13:14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion is hid from My eyes.

Nahum 1:14 The LORD has given commandment about you: "No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile." Years ago, they used to say that people who forget who they are, others are, and important things are in their lives, ....were simply said to have become "senile" or have "dementia" -- whether they had continued to wallow non-bathed in non-washed beds and couches rife and reeking with emissions of semen and menstrual blood:

Leviticus 15:16 And if a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water, and be unclean until the evening.
Leviticus 15:18 If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening.
Leviticus 15:32 This is the law for him who has a discharge and for him who has an emission of semen, becoming unclean thereby.

Leviticus 15:19 When a woman has a discharge of blood which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
Leviticus 15:20 And everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean.
Leviticus 15:24 And if any man lies with her, and her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.
Leviticus 15:25 If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness; as in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean.
Leviticus 15:26 Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her impurity.

Ezekiel 36:17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their doings; their conduct before me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.

Hebrews 10:22 . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Nowadays, we frequently hear such people overcome with "senior moments" or "brain farts" as having contracted "Alzheimer's Disease" or act "Altzy."

The word "hospice" to me (a bonafide babyboomer) seems to be a rather recently-appearing word invented to describe a place and situation where the reasonably-assessed "terminally ill" go to languish into their final days or perhaps weeks before succumbing to not merely eventual but instead rather soon-and-expected? demise.

It seems that the word "hospice" is maybe a combination of the words hospital and nice (i.e. nice hospital for those supposedly on a sooner-than-later path to disease-and/or-injury-caused assured termination). And/Or it could be based on the term: hospitality.

Whatever the case, should the attitude of a Christian hospice attendant, nurse, doctor, caregiver, etc. be to speed up and eagerly facilitate the day and time of death by such medical-type persons who capriciously determine such death date and time for whatever causes (such as lack of funding to pay for continued care, hostility of the dying person in their discomfort, impatience of the hospice worker, etc.)

For example, it is know that giving injections of morphine shuts down the body faster than a body normally would slow down and cease functioning . . . but the excuse giving such to "dying" patients is that it "lessen the pain" so such victims "are more comfortable."

The desire to continue to eat and drink, eat enough and drink enough, and/or eat and drink enough of appropriate and tasty-enough things should be a constant goal of all patients in hospice (along with all healthier senior-citizen elderly) who are able to eat and drink who are not on intravenous life-support:

First Kings 19:7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time, and touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too great for you."
Mark 5:43 And [Jesus] strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Acts 9:19 . . . and took food and was strengthened. For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
Romans 14:2 One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables.

As one approaches the end of his or her life, and God Himself (not any hospice person) gives them personally the ultimatum:

Genesis 48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, "Hey, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.

Genesis 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, 'I am about to die: in my tomb which I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.' Now therefore let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father; then I will return."
Genesis 50:24 And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die; but God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

Ecclesiastes 3:2 [There is] a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted . . .

John 12:33 He said this to show by what death He was to die.
John 18:32 This was to fulfill the word which Jesus had spoken to show by what death He was to die.
John 21:23 The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?"

Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

Acts 25:11 If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death; but if there is nothing in their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar."

Acts 20:29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock

Romans 5:7 Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man--though perhaps for a "good" man one will dare even to die.

Second Corinthians 7:3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Second Timothy 4:6 For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come.

Second Peter 1:15 And I will see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment

...the following comes into play:

Job 33:19 Man is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and with continual strife in his bones;
20 so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite dainty food.
21 His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen; and his bones which were not seen stick out.
22 His soul draws near the Pit, and his life to those who bring death.
23 If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him;
24 and he is gracious to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the Pit, I have found a ransom;
25 let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor;'
26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him, he comes into his presence with joy. He recounts to men his salvation,
27 and he sings before men, and says: 'I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not requited to me.
2 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the Pit, and my life shall see the light.'
29 Hey, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,
30 to bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may see the light of life.

Forced confinement in a wheelchair or bed is NOT necessarily what the Lord intends for even hospice patients:

Joshua 7:10 The LORD said to Joshua, "Get up, why have you thus fallen upon your face?

Judges 18:9 They said, "Get up, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and hey, it is very fertile. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go, and enter in and possess the land.

Proverbs 6:9 How long will you lie there, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

Mark 5:41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi"; which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up."

Luke 7:14 And He came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, arise."

Luke 8:54 But taking her by the hand He called, saying, "Child, get up."

Luke 22:46 and he said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation."

John 5:8 Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk."
John 5:11 But he answered them, "The Man who healed me said to me, 'Take up your pallet, and walk.'"
John 5:12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your pallet, and walk'?"

John 11:11 Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep."
John 11:13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.

Acts 20:9 And a young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window. He sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer; and being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

Romans 13:11 Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed . . .

First Corinthians 15:51 Wow! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed . . .

First Thessalonians 5:6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
First Thessalonians 5:7 For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

Hebrews 12:12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees . . .

But for those who understandably need rest for recuperation, that is also available:

Psalm 3:5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
Psalm 4:8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for thou alone, LORD, make me reside in safety.
Psalm 13:3 Consider and answer me, Oh LORD my God; lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death . . .

Proverbs 3:24 If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

First Thessalonians 5:10 . . . who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with Him.

What should be the realistic yet reasonably hopeful and optimistic outlook of the Christian hospice caregiver and provider?

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live . . .

Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, "As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, Oh house of Israel?

Acts 3:6 But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."
8 And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God,
10 and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's, astounded.
12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people, "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
13 The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.

Philippians 1:23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
25 Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,
26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.

Revelation 14:13