That was lovely - it made me wish I'd known your father! Dave would have liked a green burial, but the place nearest us (that folk could have got to) was really manky. So, Humanist doofer at Lawnswood Crem (Dave was a pagan, but not rally Wiccan, and his Ma had enough of a fit about there being no prayers in the ?ceremony) and much laughter among the tears. All our friends and work colleagues packed into two chapels, with "live feed" from one to t'other, made for giggles of recognition at anecdotes etc. A couple of weeks later I collected his ashes and went with Dave's family and my mate Jan to scatter his ashes at Janet's Foss near Malham (the background picture on my LJ). We hid his trolls in rocks (!) and said our "au revoirs"- just as we were leaving, there was terrific thunder, but no apparent rain. "That'll be Dave." we said, "He never could resist a bit of drama!" I, too, did some of my mourning for Dave while he was still alive, because I knew that his time left was to be so cruelly short. Mind you, given the circumstances, I wouldn't have had him stay another ten seconds, because now he's no longer in pain. After Tony Benn's wife died, he said there was a great hole in his life, but that he had filled the hole with flowers and memories. What a very beautiful way of looking at bereavement.
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Date: Friday, October 28th, 2005 03:03 pm (UTC)Dave would have liked a green burial, but the place nearest us (that folk could have got to) was really manky. So, Humanist doofer at Lawnswood Crem (Dave was a pagan, but not rally Wiccan, and his Ma had enough of a fit about there being no prayers in the ?ceremony) and much laughter among the tears. All our friends and work colleagues packed into two chapels, with "live feed" from one to t'other, made for giggles of recognition at anecdotes etc.
A couple of weeks later I collected his ashes and went with Dave's family and my mate Jan to scatter his ashes at Janet's Foss near Malham (the background picture on my LJ). We hid his trolls in rocks (!) and said our "au revoirs"- just as we were leaving, there was terrific thunder, but no apparent rain. "That'll be Dave." we said, "He never could resist a bit of drama!"
I, too, did some of my mourning for Dave while he was still alive, because I knew that his time left was to be so cruelly short. Mind you, given the circumstances, I wouldn't have had him stay another ten seconds, because now he's no longer in pain.
After Tony Benn's wife died, he said there was a great hole in his life, but that he had filled the hole with flowers and memories. What a very beautiful way of looking at bereavement.