Family gathering to say farewell: Wednesday 22nd April 2015

We returned to the UK for my mother’s funeral and stayed near the south coast in Emsworth in a house on stilts (through Airbnb) looking out overChichester Harbour. We were blessed with amazing spring weather and stunning sunsets and we were able to squeeze all the family in without discomfort for the night before the funeral. The service took place in West Wittering Parish Church which had been my parents’ home for as long as anywhere in their lives and where my father is buried. I shared the eulogy with my niece, the eldest granddaughter, and several members of the family were involved in readings, prayers and song. It was lovely getting together as an extended family, a relatively rare event these days and I think that we all felt the service was a fitting and honest tribute to her life that didn’t hide some of her more difficult traits of character, but was able to focus on the positives with gratitude