We’ve given Mum a send off, though not quite the one she deserved. Everything went without a hitch in the end, despite my road being closed for the day.
Richard, Michael, Jeni and Ross arrived from Scotland via cousin Debbie’s, complete with delicious lemon cakes from Debbie.
Leon and Lily came from Cardiff and we had a stream of messages and phone calls from people who couldn’t be there.
I’d been in a quandary about Chloe and Lottie. It wasn’t fair to ask someone to have them or leave them in my guest house, so I’d decided to leave them in the car in the shade with the windows opened. In the end, wonderful Russell, the funeral director, asked if we could take them into the service. Nothing could have been more perfect for Mum, who loved the dogs at least as much as most of the humans present!
The service was sensitively led by Steve, our celebrant, who (we learned from Russell) used to act the role of a policeman on Heartbeat. He’d listened carefully to everything I’d told him about Mum and his eulogy described her to a T. The photos in the visual tribute went down well too, especially with Dad, who hadn’t been expecting them.
Afterwards we all had a brief toast in the garden at Lea Wood Croft before everyone set off on their long drives home. Chloe’s back home with Dad at Lea Wood Croft now he’s so much better.
2022 and all that 