Wednesday

Wednesday

The day of Mum’s funeral. I’d tried to start it off as normally as possible with a walk with The Dog. She was still subdued. She can sense something.

Come to think of it, the start of the day had actually been some hours earlier. I wanted to add something to the eulogy but I couldn’t work out how to fit it in without ruining what I already had. The answer was not to try to fit it in. The answer was to write a prologue. Get the funny bit in first.

I couldn’t have hoped for the day to have gone any better. I’d arrived early, everyone who said they were going turned up, The Vicar was wonderful, the Funeral Director was respectful without being obsequious and managed the event at the crematorium with sympathy and precision. The wake afterwards was pretty much perfect.

Against all advice, I read the eulogy myself. I knew that doing it in front of a group of people would be different from doing it with The Dog as my audience in rehearsal. I got through it without faltering. The only wobble was the last two words. Public speaking gurus always tell you that you feel that you sound more nervous than your audience thinks you do. I don’t know if anyone noticed. If they did, they didn’t let on.

“Well done Nick, that was a very brave thing to do.” the Funeral Director told me.

I remember enough episodes of Yes, Minister to know that taking the brave option isn’t necessarily a sensible thing to do.

However, I didn’t feel I’d let myself down and I didn’t let my Mum down either.

I decided I would stop in at The Home for a bit of peace before going home. Word of how it had gone during the service had been spread to all the staff by the two colleagues who’d attended. I felt bathed in sympathy and care. An incredible feeling.

It wasn’t a 100% positive visit. I’d gone upstairs to see how My Ladies were and found the lounge completely empty. Reggie told me that while Audrey wasn’t detained in hospital more than a few hours, she still wasn’t right after her episode the other day.

With the spiritual leader in the upstairs lounge below par both Eleanor and Annie were lost. Quite literally lost. One was roaming the corridor and the other was in her room.