Sadness and Joy

A huge mixture of emotions today. I picked up a former colleague and friend and we travelled to Anstruther in Fife for a mutual friend’s funeral. Other friends from Edinburgh travelled there separately.

Ken had died suddenly at the age of 80. He had had heart problems and operations but despite his age his death was unexpected and a great loss for his wife who used to broadcast on hospital radio with me.

The church was packed. The singing was tremendous and the music played at the start and end of the service was wonderful. Iain MacPhail - a legend in Scottish Country Dance music -played the accordion. I sat beside him at the post funeral tea and heard how he had combined his love of music with his role as chief welfare officer in the Scottish Prison Service.

He knew both Ken and his wife through Scottish country dancing: Ken had been a superb Highland dancer.

I have not attended such a large cemetery burial and the whole event was both moving and sad. With Covid we had not seen Ken and his wife since they retired so a feeling of lost opportunities.

The day was a beautiful sunny May day and after the afternoon tea and Ken’s favourite sausage rolls I managed to pop down to the beach and harbour at Anstruther. It almost looked Mediterranean. Sadly I did not have time to call in at the famous fish and chip shop there.

I had to get back as, in the morning, I had got a call that, unexpectedly, a great friend from my days in London was in Edinburgh for a few hours with some of his family. He recently retired from the European Commission where he oversaw the Covid pandemic response. So we arranged for them all to come round in the evening. We had a lovely time catching up with conversations in English, French and franglais going on.

What a day.