Vietnamese Adoptees Living in Vietnam

My wife looked up me after checking her phone and I immediately knew something was wrong since she must have had a dozen missed calls in the past hour.  I too had a few.  It was her mom, her brother, and sister calling one after the other as if they were saying to drop everything and just go.  Her grandmother had passed away and she needed to get back to her parent’s place in the countryside as if nothing else needed to be explained.  My wife and daughter packed a bag to leave early the next day and I would join later in the evening after finishing work.   The next evening I finally arrived at the funeral, I noticed that the immediate family members were all dressed in white robes and wore head wraps that symbolized rank according to the proximity to the deceased as well as age.  Other close relatives wore white headbands, the younger children in orange headbands, and everyone else wore dark clothing and black headbands. A funeral band played traditional Vietnamese music with the droni