 Why was the cemetery joke a faux pas?
There was the usual welcoming crowd for a celebrity, and the usual speeches by the usual politicians who met him at the airport which had once been twenty miles outside of Croton, but which the growing city had since engulfed and placed well within its boundaries. The head of the American Legion and the chief of police, who had escorted him on this trip from the square, didn't ask to go in with him. He walked up what had once been a concrete path and was now an ornate flagstone path. Which was not what he'd considered at all important on leaving Walter Reed Hospital early this morning; which was something he found distasteful, something he felt beneath them both.
 Henry had died, but nobody was comfortable enough to talk about it.
 Henry had watched many people die recently, including his own commanding officer.  Henry himself had almost died and did not want to be reminded of the trauma.  The joke was so old that made everyone uncomfortable to hear again.  Henry had died, but nobody was comfortable enough to talk about it.