With apologies for the posting hiatus.
I was very honoured (and pleased and proud) when Phil asked me to 'mc Nina's funeral'. And to tell the truth I was also s..t scared. I have spoken at many funerals, but this was something of an entirely different order. Clearly I wanted to do a good job, and justify Phil's confidence in me. I didn't want to let down him, Nina, the family or the hundreds of friends who would be there. But what do you say, that isn't trite, cliché or hackneyed? And how do you hold it altogether when speaking of your closest friend? All that is challenge enough but in addition I then found out that there is the additional difficulty of the timing when officiating at a crematorium service. You have an half-hour slot and assuming five minutes each for the mourners arriving and departing, it means that you have twenty minutes for the actual service. As I say, scary.
Phil was pleased with my efforts – but perhaps he wasn't the most dispassionate assessor. The family and mourners were also complimentary – if they thought otherwise, well they wouldn't say so would they!
The thing I will remember most about it, was the palpable sense of enormous warmth, love and affection and the huge amount of laughter, as we shared our experiences of Nina. Yes we were mourning and grieving, but we remembered that whilst Nina was serious, she was also immense fun.
I wish to thank the staff at the Crematorium who were of enormous assistance, as was Mervyn, the undertaker – the right man at the right time. They also complimented me on finishing smack on time – to the minute! Something that they said that vicars who had been doing it for many years often failed to do. They suggested a second career could be beckoning. Hmm, we'll see.
Well I did my best and if nothing else I at least got the timing right! But I'll leave you to judge whether I succeeded or not. The 'service' and the various tributes follow in successive posts. I'm still awaiting an electronic version of Donald's eulogy. Paul O'Mahony, (someone who I met at Jan & Lawrence Fry's in Llanarthne and a mutual friend of Lawrence and Nina) recorded the funeral on his new state of the iPhone (very fancy). However, it will need a bit of work to get it up to 'broadcast quality'. Several of us had discussed how we created a space for the many people who wished to post their recollections and memories of Nina, plus photo's and other stuff. When we have got that together we will put the recording on it.
Phil had organised the 'wake' at the Grand Hotel – and the Hotel staff did a fantastic job. Several hours were spent meeting Nina's family and friends – and learning new things about Nina, some of them very surprising. I went straight from that to St Mary's Carol Service. I went with Paul O'Mahony, one of the Glyndourneanians. It seemed an entirely appropriate end to the day. This was the standard lessons & Carol thing but St Mary's do it very well. It has a superb choir and the church was packed. Paul was much taken with meeting all the 'dignitaries' – Bishop, archdeacon, Lord Lieutentant and Lord Mayor, amongst others. He also chatted with many of my other acquaintances. He offered them all 'Greetings from Cork' (unusurprisingly that's where he's from). He is also an avid blogger, I think he has three on the go, plus twitter and Facebook. If you have the energy to search his latest site (he is prolific, if not prolix) then I am sure you will find what he said about the funeral and the Carol Service.
I was sad that Andrew Vesey the Rector at St Mary's wasn't there as he was ill, although he was ably substituted by the Archdeacon of Gower. I have a great regard for Andrew Vesey, especially for his willingness to speak out and provide moral leadership. I thought Paul would have liked him as well.
PS. It turns out that Paul hasn't posted anything. Still his blog is worth a look if only for its variety and the sheer energy it displays.
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