There's a certain amount of outright lying that happens when somebody dies that can be neatly filed under "mom told me to never speak ill of the dead" - it's a societal norm thing.
In the Southeast, we go with
Doesn't he look natural?
He looks like he's asleep
It's kind of a blessing, he'd suffered for so long
Well, we're sure gonna miss him
It's all bullshit, but you have to make small talk on occasions like this because total silence is too awkward.