there were no surviving wendelson relatives , and friends would have been too strong a word to describe the slightly disparate band of mourners who stood , shoulder to shoulder , in the morningside crematorium chapel of rest , listening to the resident priest describe the life and achievements of a man , of whom most , at best , could only claim to having had a passing knowledge , and that chiefly acquired from the pages of the tabloid newspapers rather than from actual firsthand experience .