RIP, Audrey Muston.

Not an easy day today, but funerals never are.
My Mother in Law, Bev's Mum, was laid to rest to day.
I think everyone kept themselves pretty much together during the service, until the final piece of music started to play.
Bev had chosen, "Time to Say Goodbye", sung by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, certainly all of the family and the majority of the guests were in floods of tears.
The tears were largely left behind at the Crematorium, as smile and laughter erupted as famiy and friends reminisced about the past.
Audrey was a fine lady and will be sorely missed.

Words of Tribute from the service:-

"Audrey was born in Guildford Road, Fratton and moved to various houses in Portsmouth during her early years. At some point she moved to Fareham where she was to meet Bernard. They married at Trinity Church in Fareham and were together for more than 52 years. She really missed him after he passed on.

Audrey had various jobs throughout her life, many short-lived. She worked at ‘Woolies’ and Timothy Whites to name but two, both sadly gone as well. According to her, the best job was as a school dinner lady, just so that she could look after her little boy, Paul.

Audrey was always gullible. After she had had her first telephone installed, she received a telephone call from the Engineer (Trevor) saying that there was too much cable at the exchange, could she help by pulling some of it through her end, to which she happily obliged as she heard much laughter at the end of the phone.

She could also turn the tables. One year Jenny took her with her family to Gran Canaria. One day she was searching for her nightie, which had disappeared. Eventually, Phillip her grandson found it under his bed. Audrey told him that as it was under his bed, he must have taken it, so he should wear it. Phillip was made to wear it all day until they went out in the evening.

In the early 1970s after Trevor and Jenny had left home having married and having families of their own, the rest of the family started to take camping holidays, some of them with Audrey’s sister Dot, her husband and the cousins to the New Forest. There was one particular holiday that really sticks out, when Audrey, Bernard, Beverley, Ali and Paul with Flossie the dog were all packed into a Mini with all the camping gear, some of which was on a roof rack. A long journey packed like sardines, you wouldn’t get away with that now.

To many of the nephews, nieces, cousins and grandchildren, Audrey was know as Aunty Yap Yap, that must be due to her being unable to let there be silence. It was nothing unusual for Kay to get a telephone call around 11pm that would last for about 4 hours – I hear Richard Branson is crying his eyes out to the loss of revenue.

Despite some funny ways at times, she was always there for her family – she was one of life’s real characters. "


j.