Black-and-gold ‘viewing’ honors Garfield man who loved his Steelers
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
In silk black-and-gold pajamas, velvety black robe and slippers, James Henry Smith is at rest.
His feet are crossed, his pack of cigarettes and a beer by his side. Steelers highlights are playing on a high-definition TV screen nearby. With the TV remote in his hand, leaning back in his recliner, a Steelers blanket across his legs, it’s like a game-day Sunday.
Except that it’s not.
It was last night at Samuel E. Coston Funeral Home in Lincoln-Lemington, and family and friends were filing in to pay their final respects to Smith, whom they called one of the biggest Steelers fans in the universe.
Smith, 55, of Garfield, had been ill for two years with prostate cancer. He died last Thursday at the VA Medical Center in Oakland.
A week before, his wife, Denise Finn Smith, had called Coston’s to ask if something special could be done to celebrate her husband’s life. He wanted to be at home, in the living room, surrounded by photos of family and watching football.
For some viewers, the “living room” brightened a somber occasion.
“I saw it and I couldn’t even cry,” said Mary Jones, of Wilkinsburg, a longtime friend. “People will see him just the way he was. This is such a celebration.”
For others, the moment proved too sweet not to shed a tear.
“I couldn’t stop crying after looking at the Steeler blanket in his lap,” said MaryAnn Nalls, 58, of Friendship, Smith’s sister. “He loved football and nobody did [anything] until the game went off. It was just like he was at home.”
This viewing was unusual, acknowledged Roland Criswell, Coston’s young funeral director. In the past, with the rash of deaths of young men, families sometimes asked that they be laid out in Fubu and Pelle-Pelle, popular hip-hop clothing brands.
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