Last summer, my husband's father passed away in Italy. He had just returned home to YVR a couple of days prior after rushing to Italy when his father was admitted to hospital but flew back when he was told that his father was out of danger. We booked him on a flight the next day that would arrive at 11am into GOA for the 2pm funeral in his small hometown about 40 minutes away. He threw his clothes and a suit for the funeral in a garment bag that he always carries on. At his first connection in YYZ, he was made to check the bag and, as I am sure you can guess, they lost it at the FCO connection. He gets to his mother's house after 19 hours of travel with 20 minutes to spare and only the clothes he wore on the plane, a pair of shorts and a tshirt and sweater. His friends are all much bigger than he is so it was either borrow an extremely ill fitting suit or wear the shorts/tshirt to his father's funeral. He chose the latter but did borrow a pair of underwear from a friend, which he was graciously told to keep
I can only imagine that the other mourners were wondering if this is how Canadians normally dress for solemn events and how my husband has inappropriately adopted our West Coast laid-back style since moving to Canada. Stupid mistake: not pulling out a change of clothes before checking the bag or being a bit more insistent on not checking it.