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Nodar's father's funeral memorial feast, Etseri, November 2001

Fully one-third of my many trips to Svaneti have involved funerals of people I knew. This dear old man, 82, was in Tbilisi for some routine medical checkup stuff, and died in his son's arms. I was out of the country at the time, and came back to the news. Nodar was already in Etseri, arranging the funeral. Some of his colleagues and I travelled up, and arrived just as the casket was processing up to the burial site. Lots of emotion, screaming and wailing - as is done here. One of my portraits was used to make the traditional engraved likeness on the headstone, a great honour. There were three tables (supra) like this one, all - as is required at any proper meal in Georgia - laden with vastly more than too much food, for hundreds of guests.