Funerals

Yesterday was an interesting day in that I was scheduled to go to a funeral.  My uncle's funeral in Lincoln.  The day started off well.  Arrangements had been put in hand that I should travel to the village where my brother lived by bus and then he would take me into Lincoln where the funeral was to be held.

The day started well.  I was up early and got myself ready and all smartened up.  I ended up changing what I had originally chosen to wear - as  I managed to spill stuff all down it.  Instructions were that we were to wear bright colours  so I changed and then came to leave the house.  Major problem no keys.  Could not get out the house.  Then I lost my phone so I could not phone OH and  ended up emailing him to come and get me and take me to the bus stop.  I had had my keys in my coat pocket the night before and had then popped my coat in my trolley meaning to bring it in later from outside the back door.  Somehow or the other that did not happen - OH went off to work taking his keys leaving me locked inside.  Fortunately OH managed to get out of work come and collect me and take me to the bus station.  Phew crisis averted.

Once on the bus and we had not even left the station news came through to the driver that there had been a bad crash in the middle of the village where my brother lives and that they were going to have a detour as the accident was just before the bus stop and he had had been told to divert via different route as the road was closed off.  Rang my brother, arranged to be collected from somewhere else which would be easier for him to pick me up from.  A little while longer along the route an update was received that the road was now clear but that they would have to stop before the bus stop as it was still out of use.  Let my brother know this and arranged to be picked up from a different spot.  This was all before I got to the funeral.

Fortunately we managed to get to Lincoln without further incident.  Met up with family - it is always lovely to see them and we always meet up as though it was only yesterday.  However more and more it is turning out to be for funerals which is really sad.

The service itself was a humanist service but so reflected my Uncle David's personality that of a kind and gentle man who had a crazy sense of humour which will be sadly missed by us all but it was a service that he would have approved of.

The only best bit about these kind of events is that for a while we get to be really close family again and share memories and time with each other.  Out of the ten siblings there are only four left.  Most of them are in their eighties or thereabouts but they are very much loved.    RIP Uncle David until we meet again on the other side.

During the appreciation of David's life, reference was made to his love of motor bikes and the fact that when he was courting my aunty her mum was worried about her travelling on the back of said motorbike.  Apparently this happened nonetheless and one incident referred to when the bike let them down was he had been babysitting (everyone thought he had been babysitting my mum when in actual fact it was me). Apparently mum had come to the rescue using a torch some res knickers and string! The last conversation I had with him was about a 78 record by Fats Domino called Blueberry Hill,  All the records that had been left over at the family home had been given to me as a youngster and I still had some of them and said that I would check it out. I did check for it but could not locate it.  We believe it was one that got broken early on.  However that music was also played as part of the service.  So on that note I feel there is nothing better to end this post than to play said tune in memory of my lovely funny uncle.  I hope you like it as much as he did/we do.

https://youtu.be/bQQCPrwKzdo

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

xxx