In memory

My friends Michael and David are over from Budapest to attend David's mother's funeral. He'd been called home last week because she'd taken really bad (she's been in a nursing home for the past six months). She improved dramatically while David was here, and the family decided it was okay for him to go back to Hungary. He got back there on Tuesday and then got word this morning that she'd died.

They flew in this evening and I'd arranged to meet them in the Patriots pub in Kilmainham, close to David's family home. They'd been ridiculously ambitious in terms of timing, as a result of which I ended up waiting an hour and a half before Michael turned up. It was just as I got off the Luas and turned towards the canal that I saw these flowers against a railing overlooking the water, no doubt placed there because it's the scene of a fatal accident. It was all the more poignant for me because of the circumstances with David's mother.

I'd originally intended getting Luas/bus home, but that would have left me with hardly any time with David (who'd got to the Patriots forty minutes or so after Michael). So we all went back to the house where the family were still gathered in the living room with the mother in her coffin. As usual, chat and drink flowed, and it was 1:30 am by the time I got in a HailO taxi and made my way home.