John and Dolly

A memorial service at our church today for one of the congregation, Professor John Peterson. John and I, with help from a few others have taken the 12-16 year old age group at Sunday school for well over a decade. I got to know him and his partner Elizabeth and their 2 boys well over the years. We shared the same birthday ( though I was 3 years older) and that created a certain bond.

His tragic and unexpected death a few weeks back was a great shock to us and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh where he was a Professor focussing on European integration and international politics. He was a frequent contributor to BBC Scotland news programmes.

Most of us knew about his love of the Boston Redsocks- indeed most sport and he had in recent years become a fervent supporter of the Scotland rugby team. We knew of his caring approach to friends and his love of music.

Less well known to me was his role as a DJ growing up in the States or of his partying with the stars in LA. One of the photos on display makes up the blip: and that was a time when John had hair.

This was the second memorial service for me in the past few months : the previous one was of Sir Iain Fraser of Tain and it was to his widow’s that we are friends were invited for dinner this evening

At both memorial services we found out more about our friends which would have been lovely to have spoken about with them while alive.