I found the last ceremony at the grave site the most emotionally wrenching.

The eulogies of the children were not about his impact on the world, but about his impact on them, as a father. It seemed much more personal and heartbreaking to me, because while I admired Reagan, I knew him only as a politician, and I didn't love him.

Holding the folded flag, Nancy goes up to the now-bare casket, and lays her head on it one last time, saying goodbye to her husband of over half a century. Her children come in to comfort her. I hear a lot of chattering noise in the background, and I suspect that it was a multitude of camera shutters.

Somehow this last seemed, to me, a huge invasion of privacy of the family. But as Patti said in her written eulogy last weekend, she knew she had to share him with an entire nation. Apparently, right up to the end.

Just saw the tape. Given that this media attention was not unexpected, and that both Ronald and Nancy Reagan were quite used to the limelight, I prefer to think of every audible click as yet another million people, somewhere in America or around the world, sharing in the sorrow and the poignancy of the moment. From what I gather Mrs. Reagan got solace from the public reaction these past few days. Those of us with elderly parents got an object lesson in how to be classy right to the end.

Besides ... this was a private family event. Given the way Mrs. Reagan (and her husband) scripted every last detail, none of those photographers - or the TV crews - would have been there unless she really wanted them to be there.

After all, they were a show-biz family before President Reagan got famous in politics. Yes, it was probably "scripted," but that doesn't make it any less sincere, just something we might not think of doing.

After years of hearing about how the various Reagan children were on the "outs" with one another, I liked seeing the solidarity of family for this moment.

Rich

Despite all the glitz and pomp (here in Washington DC we were all really getting tired of the traffic problems) on TV I saw nothing but very honest emotions from the Reagan family. Again, a class act.

Oops forgot to add my name.

I know it was planned, but still, I couldn't help feeling that in the end there might be some regret. That they wanted to preserve the moment, but couldn't, in prospect, understand how profound, how painful the moment would have been, and I felt a little embarrassed observing it, because I didn't know them, and I felt like I was intruding on something that should have been private.

In retrospect, just because it was so obviously sincere, it's sad that they couldn't have had some private time to grieve with the casket, with no cameras, with no observers, but just as a family, before the interment. The sacrifice of being a public figure (and the family of a public figure) can at times be great, despite whatever benefits might accrue.

Far more troubling was the utter inability of the big networks ABC CBS NBC CNN to shut their damned pie-holes. Fox was good -- said little -- but CSPAN said nothing. I don't need commentary over "the Battle Hymn of the Republic" or a description of the family relationship with their minister DURING the damned homily.

I was wondering what the other networks were doing. Fox was respectful and silent. So was MSNBC, at least during the portions I watched in the National Cathedral. Unfortunately, some so-called broadcast journalists think that they have an obligation to tell us how much more informed and smarter than us they are, and have a need to insert their supposed profundities into somberness.

Mr. Simberg wrote:
"it's sad that they couldn't have had some private time to grieve with the casket, with no cameras, with no observers, but just as a family, before the interment."

Actually, they did. They certainly had private time at the Capitol, before the procession to the National Cathedral, and the actual burial will be private. Only family members.

Watching the ceremony on television (and witnessing the procession to the Capitol myself, standing on Constitution Avenue) reminded me that all of this is ritual and tradition. Every culture has its own rituals and traditions. We might sniff at "more primitive" cultures in Africa or Polynesia and how they deal with death, but we have our own ceremonies that don't really make much sense. Why the multiple goodbyes to the deceased? Why tearful goodbyes in public when there will also be tearful goodbyes in private? Because this is part of the rituals and traditions of death, particularly the death of a former leader.

I too heard the cameras clicking while Mrs. Reagan cried at the casket and for a brief second I thought it was disrespectful. Then for a brief second I realized that they were there because she wanted them there. And finally I realized that those images would become iconic, and that this is also part of the ritual and tradition. And it is not a bad thing that others can share in the emotion of the moment.

They certainly had private time at the Capitol, before the procession to the National Cathedral, and the actual burial will be private. Only family members.

I meant immediately before interment. That was when Nancy was obviously in the most distress--she knew that this was the last chance to say goodbye.

I too heard the cameras clicking while Mrs. Reagan cried at the casket and for a brief second I thought it was disrespectful. Then for a brief second I realized that they were there because she wanted them there.

"Want" is the wrong word, I think. She felt an obligation to have them there, but I suspect that she would have desired something more private.

I agree, Rand. I have to think that Mrs. Regan would have opted for no photograhers - or at least no more than one or two of her chosing who were discrete. The alternative would have been news helicopters (LA freeway anyone?) and murky telephoto pictures - even with Secret Service keeping people away.

Of course, if she had truly wanted a totally private ceremony, she could have had one. But the media would have camped outside in front of *something*. But I think she opted for the best possible balance given the circumstances - and then put forth a class act in every public moment.

My wife commented about the shutter noise during the silence where Nancy embraced the coffin one last time.

We discussed it for a minute and thought the intrusiveness was the price of preserving the moment for history, as I'm sure there were noisy cameras when young John Kennedy, Jr. was captured saluting his father's cortege, or when the black accordionist wept at FDR's death.

RIP, RWR...

--furious