The curtains were drawn, of course, but Aunt Nina said the carpets should also be rolled back and a lock placed under the coffin. Why, she did not know, but that was the way it has always been.Coins closed the dead man’s eyes and a glass of vodka with a slice of bread laid on top was placed next to the open coffin. The family could have had a chitalka or reader to sit up all night reading Psalms while relatives kept vigil. But Vitaly and Natasha thought their father, who was not fanatically religious, would have begrudged the expense. Instead, they paid a small fee to have their father’s name mentioned during a general memorial service in the local Orthodox church. The priest insisted on seeing the death certificate to be sure he was not being tricked into remembering a living person, which is a black magic practice. Ritual had warned Vitaly and Natasha not to buy wreaths from street traders, as it said they were often stolen from graves.

But after paying for the coffin and bus, they had to economise on flowers, so they bought on the street anyway. The wreath frames were indeed old but fresh flowers had been put in. “Dad would just have thought it was funny,” said Vitaly.The burial took place in Kolomna’s New Cemetery. The dead man’s sister- in-law, Aunt Vera, decreed that he had forfeited the right to lie with his wife in the Old Cemetery because he had had other women since she died 15 years ago. Therefore, Aunt Vera herself would take the place with her sister when her time came He would have just laughed at that as well After the burial, the family had a wake at home. Dozens of neighbours crammed into the three-room flat to drink vodka and eat salads. An alcoholic, who had seen the coffin being taken out and knew there would be free drink later, gate-crashed.

Uncle Yura got into a fight with him and in the end Aunt Vera, strict as ever, threw out them both.Two more parties, though quieter, would be held on the ninth and 40th days after the death. Russians believe that on the 40th day, the soul finally leaves the places to which the person was attached in life After the funeral, the family sat around discussing death. “It’s very shocking to see the person you have loved become a lifeless doll,” said Vitaly. “But the body of my dad was so unlike my dad himself that I concluded he simply wasn’t there. And if he wasn’t there, then he must have gone to another place In a way I am happy now.

My father’s sufferings are over and I know that he is free.”Helen Womack. Sound return on Investment

IN ORDER to satisfy growing reader demand for sound investment comment and analysis, The Independent is from today reintroducing an investment column – 1,000 words of analysis on company results and stock market trends running Tuesday through to Friday and normally appearing adjacent to the stock market report.
The column aims to be lively, informative and always to take a view, though as ever in dealing with investment, we cannot always guarantee to get that judgement right. This is in addition to our Outlook column, which aims to comment of the leading business, economic, market and corporate issues of the day.. Jobs risk in New Holland takeover

HUNDREDS OF UK jobs were at risk last night after New Holland announced the $4.3bn takeover of Case, creating one of the world’s biggest farm and construction vehicle manufacturers.
New Holland, which is 72 per cent owned by Fiat of Italy, has a tractor plant in Basildon, Essex, employing 2,200, while Case also has a tractor plant in Doncaster and has factories in Manchester and Lincoln which make excavators and sprayers.A spokesman would not comment on specific job losses, but said that consolidation was inevitable in a merger of this size. The combined group will have revenues of $12bn, putting it just behind the market leader, John Deere, but it is likely to have to dispose of some businesses to gain regulatory approval.. Taylor Woodrow cuts 250 workers

TAYLOR WOODROW is cutting 250 workers in a revamp of its construction business.
The reorganisation will see it withdraw from process engineering and either close or sell its materials-handling company, Birtley Engineering, the group said yesterday The civil and building divisions will also be merged..

EXECUTIVES from Dresdner, the German banking giant, are to meet their opposite numbers at Unicredito, Italy’s number three bank, later this week for talks which could lead to the first major cross-border banking deal in the merger wave sweeping the European continent. The move follows the rejection at the weekend of a $13.6bn (pounds 8.4bn) bid by Unicredito for rival Banca Commerciale Italiana (Comit), which has left Unicredito’s well-regarded chief executive, Alessandro Profumo, scouting around for alternatives.
Spokesmen for Dresdner confirmed yesterday that the bank is seeking “co- operation partners” in Italy, although they refused to be drawn on any specifics relating the planned meeting with the Unicredito management.Dresdner, appears to have been stung into action by moves by its arch- rival Deutsche Bank, which last week met Mediobanca, the Machiavellian Milanese investment bank, for talks about raising its existing 0.75 per cent stake in Unicredito – although Deutsche chief executive Rolf Breuer yesterday took advantage of the German bank’s annual meeting to quash rumours in Frankfurt banking circles that he was preparing an all-share merger bid for Unicredito along the DaimlerChrysler model.Unlike Deutsche, which has a large retail presence in Italy thanks to the 1994 acquisition of the former Bank of America network there, Dresdner is still a relative outsider in Italian terms.Its first foray into the Italian market came last year when it acquired Albertini, a Milan-based stockbroking firm, from France’s Societe Generale.Deutsche has also acquired a 4.56 per cent stake in Comit – giving it yet another potential entry point into the Italian banking sector.Mr Profumo, say analysts, is under pressure to pull off a friendly deal within the next few months because 40 per cent of the bank is in the hands of a series of charitable foundations who are keen to sell.. FEARS THAT global financial markets are on the brink of a sharp correction grew yesterday amid concerns that interest rates in the US and UK are at a turning point. Shares in London and New York slumped ahead of today’s Federal Reserve meeting.