What is the theme of this poem?

I had to put in a comma in the line, "and congratulated one another upon the astounding number, if featureless file clerks who came respect-paying." I interpret this to mean that the relatives attending the maid's wake were astounded by the number of downtrodden workers who knew her and came to pay their respects when she was largely forgotten by her relatives. So the theme seems to be to not to forget the elderly and to respect them.