Funeral of a friend, on-line

I had my usual broken night's sleep but slept for a good long time, nevertheless. After breakfast, Clare and I watched Angela's funeral live streamed from St Edmund's Selly Park in Birmingham, the Catholic church she had attended faithfully for fifty eight years. It was a lovely celebration, presided over by a parish priest of long standing in the community, who spoke warmly and personally about her as one of the church's most faithful regular members. 

A University friend and colleague delivered a thoughtful erudite eulogy that reflected her life and times, growing up in war-time Italy, and as a mother, scholar and poet during her married life in Britain, as the wife of an eminent Shakespeare scholar. Several of her grandchildren read or sang and played. 

Amazingly for a Catholic funeral Mass in a time of lock-down the service lasted an hour and twenty five minutes, which meant that we missed the Armistice Day Act of Remembrance, although I think we'd reached the post Communion silence at the eleventh hour. Three of her poems read at the service were beautiful and showed her mastery of written English. She retained her Sicilian accent throughout her life and didn't always do justice to her own work when reading them aloud herself, but her two grandchildren and her son did them justice. She was a remarkable witness to holiness in the everyday world of home and family. We knew her for forty eight years. We'll miss her.

I cooked a paella for lunch, pleased to be able to give as well receive again domestically. It was just as well. Clare needed time and space to work on video recording a few carols for the Carnival Band virtual Christmas concert on her mobile phone. A big learning curve for her.

For much of the day, I felt lethargic and sluggish, but went out tentatively for a walk in the park at three and the fresh air revived me, sufficiently to walk my daily quota in one. Clare came out and joined me. It was such an overcast day that it seemed almost dark an hour before sunset. The wound behaved and after walking for an hour and a half I had little discomfort or pain. That's an improvement. I daresay the after effects of the anaesthetic will be with me for some days to come.