A day of funerals

While Mr hazelh and I were at his father's funeral in Nottingham today, Darcie and Sally were at Eliza's in Oxford, and my not-so-little sister and Mummy hazelh were at George's in Hexham.

Our day went well. For the first time ever, I rode in a funeral cortege car. I managed to hold it together during the service by 'disengaging'. I tried not to watch the proceedings too closely, avoided the eyes of others, and barely looked at the coffin at all. I lost it a bit immediately afterwards when we all congregated outside, but not for too long.

Away from the crematorium and with the service successfully concluded, we were all much more relaxed at the funeral 'tea'. Two diet Cokes - each spiced up with a double measure of Bacardi - probably helped in my case. Mr hazelh managed on three double whiskies and ginger ale!

Meanwhile the others kept us updated on the proceedings at the two funerals elsewhere. There were some impressive flower displays at Eliza's. My not-so-little sister, who has never been to a Quaker service of any kind before, was intrigued by the largely silent format of the service for George.

This evening, a few of us reassembled at Mr hazelh's sister Sam's house for a quiet supper of chilli con carne followed by chocolate biscuits left over from Christmas. We congratulated ourselves on a good send-off for my father-in-law.

My ex brother-in-law*, who is still on good terms with the family, drew this sketch to represent Daddy John, copies of which were included in the order of service. Mr hazelh's step-mother is going to hang the framed original on the wall in her sitting room behind Daddy John's old chair.  

*Artist Nick Hugh McCann. For those who have followed the Platform to Platform project to create a podcast series based on Lorna Lloyd's Diary of the war (previously blipped in the LornaL journal), Nick is the father of Bethany Ray, who plays Lorna in the podcast series. 

Exercise today: none