A Life Cut Short

The sunshine and blue skies of a spring day belied the grief and sorrow of a family mourning the death of a son, grandson, husband, brother and friend to many.
This was a young man, a vet, newly married and with a lifetime ahead of him.

The Requiem Mass was attended by so many people that there was only standing room left for those arriving just before the start.
The congregation was overwhelmingly composed of young people for whom this was perhaps their first experience of a death in their age group, all of them weeping.

It was a long service, with communion for the Roman Catholics amongst the assembled, and leaving the responses a mystery to some of us, but the service sustaining for the family, we have to hope.

Our book group were all present at the service, and our mission now is to support our friend through the next months and years.

With Mother's Day tomorrow, I can't even begin to contemplate how one deals with the death of your firstborn, but I do know that all her friends will be thinking of her, a lady of immense courage who has had to deal with far more troubles than most in the time that we have known her.