In the sense that there was no room for them to do or say anything of their own at all, and what little attention was given to them was in the third person and as a group. The only one talking was the priest, who had never even met the deceased. Participation from family and friends was limited to the singing of a couple of hymns, reading out loud of a pre-written prayer and walking past the coffin to drop off a flower. There were no bonding elements, no room for personal words, almost no room for displays of grief and so on.