Many funeral homes have a "Family Room" where family can step away for a little privacy when it gets too much. It might be worth checking into whether you could bring the kids with a few books or toys and have them stay there during the visitation, with people staying with them in shifts. They would be close enough you could drop in from time to time, but would not need to be in the room with the open casket.
(I had nightmares for years about being pressured at age 8 to kiss my grandfather goodbye in his casket. He had commited suicide also, which led to a whole 'nother layer of tension to the event which I totally didn't understand at the time.)
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Date: 2011-05-02 07:23 pm (UTC)(I had nightmares for years about being pressured at age 8 to kiss my grandfather goodbye in his casket. He had commited suicide also, which led to a whole 'nother layer of tension to the event which I totally didn't understand at the time.)