Funerals are odd things. In some strange, mixed up way, I’ve been looking forward to today. I think that it is because of Grannie’s funeral two and a half years ago. Although it was sad, and upsetting, she was old, and we came away from having spent a day with family many of whom we hadn’t seen in ages, and it was good. In many ways, Grannie herself would have liked it.
I arrived at Emma’s a little before 11 o’clock and we went on to Amersham. It’s weird but as I drove through the grounds of Amersham Crematorium it hit me. Literally right behind the eyes I could feel myself begin to well up. The service itself was a humanist service – Grandpa having been not in the slightest way, religious. We had some readings, and my Dad did a eulogy, put together with the aid of thoughts and memories from us all. Just before ‘the off’, my brother thrust a video camera into my hands. Apparently they had a last minute request from Signý (who could not make it being on completely the otherside of the world in New Zealand) for a video to be made. I felt very uneasy about this, but felt better after working out that if I stacked up all the prayer books on the pew they made a very useful tripod.
Afterwards we went back to The Crown in Amersham for a reception, and then later in the afternoon Emma and I went back up The Hill to visit her Grannie. This, together with a Friday evening trip to Tesco and a late dinner, has made it all a bit of a weird day. I’m writing this having just put some more of December 2007 into my photo album and watching a very good programme in which Stephen Fry investigates how to make a Gutenberg press. I’m not entirely sure what day it is. By rights it should be Saturday today, and therefore tomorrow it should be Sunday, but that’s not the case. I still have the whole weekend ahead of me.
