Grandads funeral.

Today has been very hard. We laid Grandad to rest in a way i think he would have been very pleased with. Uncle David's family and me with my Dads family followed the hearse in two separate cars from Grandads home to the big parish church. There we were met by some of the amazing carers at Age Concern and eventiually we followed Grandad into the church. I think there were many other people there but to be honest i did not look up, walking in or out. Grandad was a mayor for a few years and so there were representatives from the town council there as well as the current Mayor. They even flew the flag at half mast at the town hall.

The service was beautiful. My brother wrote a lovely speech about grandad, it really was nice. The part that sticks in my head is a funny memory of when we used to go over for sunday tea at nan and grandads. Stephen said "i learnt how to eat my dinners fast from those meals because if you were not quick, grandad would have whipped the plate, and mug from under your nose and washed it up quicker than that" Just a funny thing that i have not thought about for years.

my cousin Darren read a beautiful poem, he read it at my nans funeral and it really touched me. Very reasurring.

Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other
That we are still
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we always enjoyed together
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effort
Without the ghost of a shadow in it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.
Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

When we left the church, we went up to the cemetary for the internment and i placed some lavender from my garden before leaving him.

The wake was at the local football club as Grandad was a great fan of theirs, he also did a lot for them over the years. It was lovely to see some of my family again. My Grandad leaves behind 4 sisters. All getting increasingly old and frail.
Which lead me to this thinking. Time is passing by. Never still, always moving, always changing. You would not want it to always be the same but moments and memories you miss of times you had that you loved. And what will be of the future. Time is short. Grandad used to say the same and he was 89.