The Celebration of a Life Well Lived

Audrey would have loved the send off her friends gave her this morning in St Philip's Church in Joppa. It was a day of sunshine, some clouds and a few tears.

I'm sure she would have been amazed that she meant so much to over 400 people taking up every seat in the church.
We were there to celebrate her life and we did her proud.

We cyclists gathered at Fisherrow to cycle in the neat formation Audrey would have approved of, to the church to mix with the walkers, the neighbours , the country dancers, the embroiderers, and the school friends. They had come from places other than Edinburgh: Glasgow, Ayrshire, Fife, East Lothian and West Lothian to join with her family in remembering her love for life and people, and the endless enthusiasm and cheerfulness which brightened up any gathering she was in.

The minister put it succinctly when he said that she had fashioned a rich and colourful human tapestry of people she met from different walks of life.

One of my abiding memories of Audrey was her arrival on a visit to the Dower House, bearing pots of home made jam for his Lordship and possibly a bag of home grown tomatoes and beans, She knew he liked jam on his sandwiches when he went walking, and that he liked beans as a vegetable.

Another memory is of the little tupperware dish of her infamous raisins soaked in gin, which she would hand round at the lunch time break during a cycle run, and which, she would have us believe, was good for arthritis.
Perhaps they did dull any ache, but they sure made the hills on the way home seem like happy inconveniences.

Occasionally, someone comes into your life and makes such an impact, that the charisma surrounding them cannot be extinguished by death. Audrey was one of those people.