Today—Tuesday—we went to our uncle Tommy’s funeral. We call him our uncle, but he’s actually Nanny’s uncle, so he’s my and Tilly’s great great uncle. It was very sad. Apparently Tommy was sitting on his stair-lift when he told Marjorie (his wife) that he was feeling ill. Marjorie thought he meant he was going to be sick, so she got him a bowl, but when she came back with it he had fallen out of his stair-lift and was falling down the stairs. He had to be rushed off to hospital and died there a few days later at the age of ninety.
We left the house at about ten to nine and picked up Nanny on the way. We got there at ten past ten; the service started in the church at half past ten. First the coffin was bought in, and then we sang a few hymns and listened to some sermons. Tommy’s adult granddaughter Alison read a eulogy she had written and started crying half-way through. When we got up to leave, you could see the tears running down Marjorie’s fragile face. It was really very sad.
Then we drove to the crematorium, where we heard a little more about Tommy’s life before getting up to the coffin. Then we were ushered outside; presumably Marjorie had requested specially for his body to be cremated privately. It was sad to think they had been together for sixty-six years—since they had scarcely become adults—and now, well, now they had been separated.
After the cremation, we went to the bar near the church and had a special meal laid out for us. (Annoyingly, there were some people who clearly hadn’t been to the funeral—were dressed in bright pink and looked particularly chavvy or something like that—who had snuck in and taken our buffet.) It was a bit more happy at the end, although we were still thinking about Tommy, and I think Marjorie forgot at least partially about him and was talking to us as best she could (she’s very, very old, and can’t talk or walk very well). It’s very sad, but I’m glad that now I’ve been to my first ever funeral.
We got home in time for dinner, but it wasn’t really much of a dinner because we ate so much food at the bar… I’m pleased we got to see so many of our relatives, including these people:
Paddy, Nanny’s brother, Tommy’s grandson Marilyn, Paddy’s wife Pete, Nanny’s brother, Tommy’s grandson Eamon, Nanny’s brother, Tommy’s grandson Duam, Eamon’s wife (she’s Thai) Alison, Tommy’s granddaughter (not sure how she’s related to Nanny!) Wesley, Alison’s husband Cameron and Millie, Alison’s children Trudy and George, Alison’s parents and many more.I had a sad but memorable time and I’m very pleased I got to see so many relatives.