Funeral - Your Thoughts Much Appreciated

[fishpieface]

We have been organising the funeral for an elderly relative for whom we

are executors and next of kin.

We went to Lymington yesterday to register her death and speak to the

funeral director.

Firstly, it sounds weird, but what a lovely day we had.  The registrar was

absolutely lovely, a lady who took time and really cared.  The funeral director,

a lady who oranises everything herself, lives on the premises with her

family, just sub-contracting for hearses.  What a really lovely person, honestly,

I said we should move down there in our old age just so she can direct our

funerals!  It's the first time we've done it from scratch and she was lovely,

caring, down to earth, human, so, so nice.

We then had lunch with one of our relative's friends, went to collect her

belongings from the nursing home where she lived and had a walk on

the beach for half an hour (or in my case a swim in the sea) which was

lovely.  Then back to the funeral lady to finish what we hadn't had time for

earlier and home, via a Harvester for some dinner.

Numerous little things to do, none of them difficult but they take time.  However,

the lovely people we met through having to do all these things made it so

much easier.

[fishpieface]

Is that what you do Gina?  If so, our experiemce on Thursday suggests you are in lovely

company, honestly, she was really lovely.

The suit fits perfectly!  Hubby is pleased with it and it's now in the dry cleaners (it looked

pretty clean but I thought I'd get it done so it's all fresh for him).  He put it on and said

"That's the business I reckon, that'll do the deed admirably", which roughly translates as

he likes it!

Youngest son's got a black shirt and trousers and says he will wear a waistcoat and

probably a jacket out of respect for our relative, he more often than not wears black

anyway so it's not unusual for him.  Eldest son's got his prom suit from three years

ago so he's sorted.

The service is now all sorted, I think it will be a lovely send-off for our "Aunty" as a very

dear friend of hers is kindly providing refreshments at her home as we live miles away.

It's really nice when it all comes together and I appreciate all your help too.

We can only really be sad that we won't see her anymore, she had a fabulous, interesting

life and lived to be days away from 99 years old.  Her mind was sharp but her body had

worn out, so we couldn't want her to carry on unable to do much for years and years.  She

had tremedous Christian faith too, which I know isn't for everyone, but she gave over 80

years of service to her church, even when she couldn't do physical stuff anymore she wrote

articles, services and allsorts and gave loads of time and money to supporting deserving

causes.

Her Father knew the Captain of the Titanic, they used to take their dogs for walks around

Southampton together, before the Titanic sailed (obviously) and just a few years before she

was born in 1915.  She remembered her Mum talking about going down to the docks

following the tragedy and taking food, blamkets and stuff to waiting families.  In the relatively

new Seacity Museum in Southempton, which is mostly devoted to Titanic-related stuff, she

(our "Aunty") recorded a bit on the audio-guide about it.

She's not exactly an Aunty to us but we don't really know what the relationship is, it involves

being something several times "removed" so we just call her Aunty for ease!

Sorry I've rambled on a bit!