sad hips

[Toleshwar]

what is the meaning of "sad hips", I found a sentence, it reads like this - hemmed in by sad hips and hymnbooks.

[David L.]

They are all at a funeral, so grieving, feeling 'sad'. Sitting in their pews, they are hemmed in (by people either side blocking easy exit to an aisle, and close together to that the amount of seating space and movement is restricted.) When you're sitting tightly like that, people's hips are touching, and so the author uses the image of each person hemmed in by the hips of the person next to them. Instead of saying 'the hips of the sad person next to them', the author then combines the two and talks of 'sad hips'. As well, they're all holding hyms books in front of them, so getting passed all of these would be necessary as well, if one tried to move from your seat to the aisle - so, also hemmed in by their prayer books.