Jennifer - May She R.I.P.

Attending Jennifer's funeral near Penarth south Wales  on Thursday, was  perhaps  therapeutic for many; certainly for  myself. Jennifer is the first of my parents' seven children to die.

Travelling down with mrs maytrees and my two younger sisters was interesting for several reasons, one of which was the extraordinary weather we encountered. Large hail stones lashing down on the M4 motorway caused us to slow down to some 20 mph for a while and at one stage I wondered if the car windscreen would hold. Yet half an hour or so later when we pulled into a motorway service station for refuelling, the sun shone so well that we were able to have a picnic outside in a  nearby sheltered area, during which our conversation flowed.

My youngest sister was kind enough to pay for dinner the night before the funeral, for 5 brothers and sisters,  my younger brother's wife and mrs maytrees   at the sister's hotel in Penarth. Especially as seeing people has become rather more difficult during the pandemic, it was great to catch up, despite the sad cause.

The funeral service the next day, was conducted by a CoE lady vicar who I thanked afterwards, asking  her rhetorically, when the Catholic church was going to have women priests. 

During the funeral service, which was as one might expect, slightly tearful, I could not resist singing the words from the hymn "May the choirs of angels come to greet you" at the appropriate time although singing in churches is still supposedly off limits pandemic-wise.

My other younger sister Kathy, who edits a  monthly London newspaper called KCW London, made a brilliant soliloquy (better word than sermon) about Jennifer's life, which had  us all enrapt with attention and sadness at Jennifer's passing. This was all the more creditable as Kathy is recovering from Covid-19 which afflicted her for weeks and her recovery even now, is far from complete.

Afterwards, Jennifer's two sons had arranged a wake mainly for family, in a private room above a restaurant overlooking the sea at Penarth. The wake was  very successful and some of the people present I had not seen for years. 

We  enjoyed chatting with all Jennifer's friends and relatives. Time flew by and I am sure that older sister  Jennifer would have been pleased at how her sons and two  young grand children, all coped with the day.