I didn’t intend to write another blog about my Accrington man, now that he’s no longer with me, but I decided I would do just one more after yesterday, when his funeral was held. I hope you will bear with me.
I had asked for the funeral to be delayed as last week the temperature was around 40 degrees C and it was predicted that this week would be much cooler. I wanted the people who attended to be comfortable and not wishing the whole thing was over quickly. It was a very pleasant 25 degrees yesterday as predicted.
I thought there would be a reasonable number of attendees but was so touched that there were about 130 or maybe more who came along. Keith would have felt very humble had he known so many would be there to see him off on his final journey. There were young ones and oldies (though a lot of people he has known over the years have already gone before him)and those in-between, some travelled a long way. For instance, one of the young men (a friend of one of my sons who regarded Keith as his ‘other’ dad and vice versa) drove two and a half hours to be there.
I went to see him as he lay peacefully at rest in his coffin. I said my private goodbye, I still couldn’t believe it was all happening. Everything felt (and still feels) very unreal. I expect this is what most people feel when they lose a loved one.
I had chosen ‘I Did It My Way’ to open the ceremony – because that was Keith, he did it his way.
He never went out without a genuine Scottish hat on his head. He had a collection of 10 of these, all different clans, and as each one was purchased I had to make a pompom to go on the top. So when my children all stood up to stand together and read their individual pieces they each put on one of his ‘bonnets’ as he called them. Many chuckles were heard.
My oldest son read out the eulogy I had written. He had also added some to it about me which I was very touched by. This was followed by each of my children (I have 5) speaking their thoughts about their beloved father. I was so proud of them the way they were very eloquent in what they said even though there were moments when they found it hard to continue. As they shared memories with us all, their thoughts, their feelings, there were tears and there was laughter from the people there. Keith would have been overwhelmed with what they had to say and the way they told everyone about their love for him.
There were a couple of poems that were very apt, a very touching one read by my son and another read by the celebrant ‘In The Highlands’ by Robert Louis Stevenson – Keith had spent many happy hours trekking over the Highlands when a young man. When the Celebrant invited anyone to speak one of Keith’s golfing mates (I called the group the grumpy old men – mainly their grumps were about Councils, Governments, and politics in general) spoke and the young man whose family have been our neighbours for 58 years had some heartfelt words to say.
My youngest son had been given the job of preparing the photos for the slideshow. This was no mean feat as we have thousands of them and he had to pick out just 50. He did a brilliant job and the song ‘Walk Hand In Hand With Me’’ was played during the showing of these. More tears, more laughter.
The Celebrant said a few things more, then the committal, and so came the time for a final goodbye and this was done to Celtic Woman singing ‘Time To Say Goodbye’. Carnations were put on the coffin by all the people to join the arrangement of Australian flowers that were already there. I had been able to hold it all together until I put a flower on his coffin and then I almost lost it. Somehow I managed to keep going.
On a side table we had put a golf club, a bottle of Old Hookey beer, a book about Alfred Wainwright the Fell walker, some of Keith’s very old carpentry tools – probably from his apprenticeship days, a walking stick (he made a lot of these and gave them away to anyone who wanted one), and one of his ‘bonnets’. The Clan Keith hat was placed on his coffin.
Afterwards light refreshments were served, condolences given, and people were invited to join us at a local hotel where a room had been arranged for us and where liquid refreshments and finger food would be served. We didn’t know how many people would turn up and were very pleasantly surprised when about 60 came. The two hours we thought they might stay turned into more and it was some 6 hours later that my daughter (who stayed with me last night) and I arrived back home.
My son had added more photos for a total of 120 and this was a continuous slide show while we were at the hotel – so many memories.
What a day, even though it was such a sad occasion everything was as perfect as it could have been. It would have been given the thumbs up by Keith, I wish he’d have known how it would be. The Celebrant and the Funeral Director were both most impressed and said it had been one of the best – and they do a lot!
If only we had known in the 1960’s the asbestos that was being sprayed in the building where he was working, without any warning as to the danger it posed, would eventually be the cause of his death years later, he would have taken precautions. Even though he was 84 years old he had kept himself very fit until the insidious disease reared its ugly head, and nothing could be done to stop it.
We have had a very dry season and Keith worried about the lack of rain because my daughter relies on this to fill the water tanks on her property. They are getting very low now and he was always enquiring how they were going on in this regard.
When we came out of the hotel it was raining! What a fitting end to Keith’s farewell day.
Thank you for letting me share Keith’s final journey with you.
I had asked for the funeral to be delayed as last week the temperature was around 40 degrees C and it was predicted that this week would be much cooler. I wanted the people who attended to be comfortable and not wishing the whole thing was over quickly. It was a very pleasant 25 degrees yesterday as predicted.
I thought there would be a reasonable number of attendees but was so touched that there were about 130 or maybe more who came along. Keith would have felt very humble had he known so many would be there to see him off on his final journey. There were young ones and oldies (though a lot of people he has known over the years have already gone before him)and those in-between, some travelled a long way. For instance, one of the young men (a friend of one of my sons who regarded Keith as his ‘other’ dad and vice versa) drove two and a half hours to be there.
I went to see him as he lay peacefully at rest in his coffin. I said my private goodbye, I still couldn’t believe it was all happening. Everything felt (and still feels) very unreal. I expect this is what most people feel when they lose a loved one.
I had chosen ‘I Did It My Way’ to open the ceremony – because that was Keith, he did it his way.
He never went out without a genuine Scottish hat on his head. He had a collection of 10 of these, all different clans, and as each one was purchased I had to make a pompom to go on the top. So when my children all stood up to stand together and read their individual pieces they each put on one of his ‘bonnets’ as he called them. Many chuckles were heard.
My oldest son read out the eulogy I had written. He had also added some to it about me which I was very touched by. This was followed by each of my children (I have 5) speaking their thoughts about their beloved father. I was so proud of them the way they were very eloquent in what they said even though there were moments when they found it hard to continue. As they shared memories with us all, their thoughts, their feelings, there were tears and there was laughter from the people there. Keith would have been overwhelmed with what they had to say and the way they told everyone about their love for him.
There were a couple of poems that were very apt, a very touching one read by my son and another read by the celebrant ‘In The Highlands’ by Robert Louis Stevenson – Keith had spent many happy hours trekking over the Highlands when a young man. When the Celebrant invited anyone to speak one of Keith’s golfing mates (I called the group the grumpy old men – mainly their grumps were about Councils, Governments, and politics in general) spoke and the young man whose family have been our neighbours for 58 years had some heartfelt words to say.
My youngest son had been given the job of preparing the photos for the slideshow. This was no mean feat as we have thousands of them and he had to pick out just 50. He did a brilliant job and the song ‘Walk Hand In Hand With Me’’ was played during the showing of these. More tears, more laughter.
The Celebrant said a few things more, then the committal, and so came the time for a final goodbye and this was done to Celtic Woman singing ‘Time To Say Goodbye’. Carnations were put on the coffin by all the people to join the arrangement of Australian flowers that were already there. I had been able to hold it all together until I put a flower on his coffin and then I almost lost it. Somehow I managed to keep going.
On a side table we had put a golf club, a bottle of Old Hookey beer, a book about Alfred Wainwright the Fell walker, some of Keith’s very old carpentry tools – probably from his apprenticeship days, a walking stick (he made a lot of these and gave them away to anyone who wanted one), and one of his ‘bonnets’. The Clan Keith hat was placed on his coffin.
Afterwards light refreshments were served, condolences given, and people were invited to join us at a local hotel where a room had been arranged for us and where liquid refreshments and finger food would be served. We didn’t know how many people would turn up and were very pleasantly surprised when about 60 came. The two hours we thought they might stay turned into more and it was some 6 hours later that my daughter (who stayed with me last night) and I arrived back home.
My son had added more photos for a total of 120 and this was a continuous slide show while we were at the hotel – so many memories.
What a day, even though it was such a sad occasion everything was as perfect as it could have been. It would have been given the thumbs up by Keith, I wish he’d have known how it would be. The Celebrant and the Funeral Director were both most impressed and said it had been one of the best – and they do a lot!
If only we had known in the 1960’s the asbestos that was being sprayed in the building where he was working, without any warning as to the danger it posed, would eventually be the cause of his death years later, he would have taken precautions. Even though he was 84 years old he had kept himself very fit until the insidious disease reared its ugly head, and nothing could be done to stop it.
We have had a very dry season and Keith worried about the lack of rain because my daughter relies on this to fill the water tanks on her property. They are getting very low now and he was always enquiring how they were going on in this regard.
When we came out of the hotel it was raining! What a fitting end to Keith’s farewell day.
Thank you for letting me share Keith’s final journey with you.
