Popular Nollywood actress , Mary Lazarus has recounted the experience she had during her mother’s funeral, claiming that her kinsmen milked her dry with their demands.
In a post she shared via her Instagram page on Wednesday, Lazarus lamented that planning an Igbo burial is very stressful, as she listed the rites she carried out on her mother’s burial day.
She said, “Planning an Igbo burial is the most stressful thing ever. People that were never part of your life demanding things they can’t afford, looking for ways to milk you dry. She said.
“Imagine, after doing mumsy’s Service of Songs in Lagos, they told us we must repeat it in the village. In this order: Service of Songs, Wake Keep, Burial day, a Thanksgiving, and people must eat on each of these four days.”
The actress said a kinswoman asked her and her siblings to serve assorted meals to the Reverend Father before her mother’s corpse gets to the church. The meal should serve over 50 people, she was told.
“After we gave them, I saw them at the reception and they were demanding for their own canopy.
“After that, you will package money for all the Reverends. You will package separate food for youths, women.
“Please can we just bury our mom and leave? So someone without money cannot conduct a burial in the village? In lgbo culture, you must bury a corpse in the village, especially when the person is influential.”
The actress noted that her father’s kinsmen demanded for a fat cow, stating that ‘if the cow is slim, we won’t take it.”
Lazarus said when she asked her aunty if all the demands were necessary, the older woman replied that it is part of the culture, and even told her a story about a man that stole a goat because of his mother’s burial in the village.