Before entering that close and carpeted room where death reclined in a glossy cherrywood casket, his mourners could experience (or relive) the life now lost one snapshot at a time, a panoramic profusion that tricked the mind (by the third or fourth poster board) into perceiving wholeness, movement, resuscitation: much as a flipbook projects the pole vaulter into the air and over the bar, the illusion in this instance animated all the stages, ages, and awkward phases of a life in full, its growth spurts, bad fashions, changes in facial hair, kisses blown to anonymous lovers and goodbyes waved
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