Underneath the Beech tree
The Saturday before was a packed day in Norfolk sorting out the funeral. A morning appointment with the funeral director, lunchtime at the Colney Woodland Burial Park deciding where my mum would rest (our old house had two huge Beech trees hence the title) and afternoon tea with the humanitarian minister to talk about the service. After a couple hours I had to get house keys cut, drop them around a mate's in Dereham then go choose some clothes for my mum. The last thing was to deliver them to my auntie's and then home. I guess I must have clocked up 500 miles at least that day.
Midweek was more organising. I still had to choose some music for the day. Both I-tunes and my laptop's CD drive was playing up but finally settled with Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Billie Holiday's East to Remember. Another funeral detail was the newspaper notice which is provide by the funeral director. After speaking to my aunt, they got the maiden name wrong. However, this wasn't to be their only mistake.
We drove up to Norfolk last Friday night with no problems until we reached Swaffham, about 10 miles from my dad's house. Snow was coming down thick and fast, and starting to stick to the roads! It was still coming down when we went to bed.
We woke up to a thin blanket of crisp whiteness but rewarded with bright, blue skies. The Norfolk countryside was beautiful. The actual funeral went really well as an event like this could with quite a few more people than I expected paid their respect. My lasting memory was seeing the bright midday sunshine through the trees at the graveside then turning round to see my family waiting for me.
The second mistake for the funeral director was to forget the service sheets. Don't think I'll be recommending them for next time though wouldn't want to think about a next time. Catching up with my family was good especially my rogue cousin who was contacted by an American 15 year old through Facebook claiming to be his daughter. The claim was indeed correct so he's now a father!
Midweek was more organising. I still had to choose some music for the day. Both I-tunes and my laptop's CD drive was playing up but finally settled with Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Billie Holiday's East to Remember. Another funeral detail was the newspaper notice which is provide by the funeral director. After speaking to my aunt, they got the maiden name wrong. However, this wasn't to be their only mistake.
We drove up to Norfolk last Friday night with no problems until we reached Swaffham, about 10 miles from my dad's house. Snow was coming down thick and fast, and starting to stick to the roads! It was still coming down when we went to bed.
We woke up to a thin blanket of crisp whiteness but rewarded with bright, blue skies. The Norfolk countryside was beautiful. The actual funeral went really well as an event like this could with quite a few more people than I expected paid their respect. My lasting memory was seeing the bright midday sunshine through the trees at the graveside then turning round to see my family waiting for me.
The second mistake for the funeral director was to forget the service sheets. Don't think I'll be recommending them for next time though wouldn't want to think about a next time. Catching up with my family was good especially my rogue cousin who was contacted by an American 15 year old through Facebook claiming to be his daughter. The claim was indeed correct so he's now a father!
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