Ending of an era

 A bright shnny day with early clouds making away for clear blue sky. I was collected at ten to officiate at a funeral in Thornhill. The smaller Briwnant chapel was full of mourners for a service without hymns but with Paul McCartney singing 'Yesterday' after I gave the eulogy. Paul, one of Pidgeon's drivers was today among the mourners carrying the coffin, having known the deceased and her children for most of his life. 

While we were travelling there, I was passed a note by on of the funeral team asking if I could do another funeral in two weeks time. It will be the second graveside only service I've taken this year. The well appointed chapels, although suitable for the purpose, cannot escape being anonymous and clinical. With a full busy Friday schedule running the place cannot escape having the character of an industrial production line. If it's not raining, I prefer the atmosphere of a simpler open air service accompanied by birdsong.

I set out to walk to the bank in town when I returned, but met Pete and Diana at the Danish bakery and had a coffee with them until it was time for lunch. When I got back, I found that Clare had already cooked in Owain's company. He took the day off to attend the funeral of an eccentric septuagenarian named Rhys who lived just around the corner from us on Llanfair Road. 

In the ten years Owain lived in Meadow Street, he'd been friends with Rhys and his step children. A month before he died, Rhys had called him and chatted for over an hour by way of saying goodbye, as he knew he didn't have long to live. Family and friends gathered outside the house for a quarter of an hour before the hearse arrived, (it was a Green Willow funeral), giving people not attending the funeral a chance to pay their respects and see him off. 

I think that's the first funeral in our neighbourhood since we moved in twelve years ago. Ours is an area with other retired people like us, but with more first time buyers with small families or single people, so the turnover in younger occupants has been high. Several houses are now rented out and renters also tend to be short term occupants.

Owain called in for a cup of tea with us after the funeral before heading back to Bristol, and then Clare and I went out for a walk. We parted company on the riverside path as she wanted to go across to the Royal Welsh College 'Amser Jazz' session, and I needed to head home and get supper ready. In the evening I watched an episode of 'Grace', a real crime thriller, then another episode of 'Nordic Murders' better known in German as 'Usedom krimi' after the ravishing Nordsee coastal island setting where the series is set. These stories are slow paced and explore relationships and characters around tragic events, as much as they are whodunnits. I'm always encouraged to find how much of the German dialogue I can remember, even though its so many years since we spent any time in Germany or Switzerland.