The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Bardo Thodol

I just heard the news that the father of a dearest friend on mines passed away last night.
I cannot reach her on the phone, I imagine she must be very busy right now, organising the funeral and attending to all the chores that accompany death.
It made me think of my lost beloved ones and the million things I took on myself in those sad days to try and keep my mind from collapsing from the grief.
There always seem to be so many things to take care of when someone dies.
No matter what religion, culture or country, the family can hardly stop for a week, sometimes even more.
I guess it's therapeutic, you feel responsible, as if everyone was looking up at you and you have to keep it together and not let anyone down, so you keep going.
My further readings into Tibetan Buddhism deal with death almost in every page.
Death is seen as the end of one life and the beginning of the Bardo, the "period in-between" lives.
In a few words the Bardo is the period in which someone's consciousness has ceased to belong to one's body and it has not reborn yet.
During the Bardo the family of the deceased are, as said, very busy and one of the most moving chores is the talking to the deceased. The literally whisper to his/her ear.
What do they say? Prayers, mostly, there is a whole text dedicated to this ceremony, what we know as the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
This text is conceived to help the consciousness find enlightenment and escape the samsara, the cycle of birth-death-rebirth.
Whispering it into the deceased's ear will lead him through the tests he or she has to pass.
From the moment a person's body is dead, his/her consciousness has 7 days to reach enlightenment.
He is presented with visions that he has to recognise and if he does he will have reached awakening. I'm simplifying with humility a very deep concept that is difficult to understand for a spiritually challenged westerner like myself.
If one does not reach enlightenment at the end of the 7th day, he is presented with another 7 days of visions at the end of which he still has the chance of awakening, and so on for 49 days, 7 times 7.
At the end of this cycle, if enlightenment is still not reached, one's consciousness will reincarnate in another form of life. The family of the deceased will have prayed not only to inspire him to reach awakening but also to wish him a good reincarnation.
I wish I was more familiar with the concept of reincarnation.
Isn't it ironic that many westerners like myself wish to believe in reincarnation to feel less sad about their lost loved ones, when the people who actually believe in reincarnation wish their lost loved ones will awaken to stop the reincarnation cycle!