Four Funerals and a ...........

I have now attended a fourth funeral in recent times without even a hint of a wedding on the horizon!  I'm sure it is a fact of life as we get older, but funerals seem to be becoming more prevalent.

Today's was hard.  Rob and I have worked in the same department for almost 28 years and we are about the same age.  For the last five I have been his team leader and it was the lowest moment in my working life when he came to see me in May last year to tell me he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Everything was done to try and prolong his life.  Chemotherapy was attempted but all I saw in the months that followed was a fit, healthy man whither and age under the onslaught of a cancer and the impact of the treatment trying to prolong his life.

The funeral today was a celebration of his life.  Three colleagues contributed to the ceremony and made valuable contributions to everyone's understanding of Rob.  It struck home when one made the point that in all of the time that we had known him, Rob had never said a bad word about anyone.  Even when he had justification to be critical of others, his approach was to remain silent rather than bad mouth someone.  It is something I feel many of us, me included, could learn from.

We returned to his home afterwards and shared memories and thoughts with his family and friends.  So often the family/friends and work colleagues of a person don't meet so it was particularly satisfying to be able to share our memories of a thoroughly decent man.