Sad Times
How hard it is to fulfil a promise that one gives in days that seem so far away from the time in debate. Mum did not want to be resuscitated if she became really ill, well we managed that and she had no intrusive medical attention whilst in hospital. Her funeral was also something that we had discussed many times. In her latter years she had left the church for various reasons, and did not want a vicar to talk at her cremation, so we were to just say something, play some music and have her cremated - preferably in an orange box..... Now they don't do those in her size, so that one did not work! However, she wanted to have Grapelli and Menuhin playing 'Putting on the Ritz' for her last piece of music which we did.
Livvy told one of mum's stories about life, she likened it to climbing a silver mountain all your life, then at the end you have time to sit down and look at the view. At this point Livvy turned to mum's coffin and stated that her view must have been fantastic, - how right she was!
Both my children were wonderful throughout the last fortnight, DLG, you would have been proud of Rupert's piece of writing, it bore all your hallmarks.
After this, I will now do what my piece of writing exhorted people to do:

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back:
Or you can do what she would want, smile, open your eyes, love and go on