A Daisy for David.

David was my cousin
I went to his funeral today.
I was one of many cousins, who when we were growing up, were quite a close knit group and we all lived near to each other.
We all knew without ever speaking about it that David was a bit different.
We didn't question that difference, he was just one of us and we made allowances for him when he didn't understand our jokes or the rules of our games.
As we grew up and made our way in the world David got left behind. He lived at home until his parents died and in middle age went into residential care.
He often went to his brother's home at weekends and his immediate family visited him often.
We cousins became more dispersed but never lost touch.
Today we all met to celebrate his life.
David was a keen member of the church and they took him in as part of their family and loved him.
The home where he lived loved him too and all the staff and residents came today and provided the refreshments afterwards.
People came up to us to say that David had been the kindest and gentlest person they had ever met.
When we did the usual reminiscing afterwards we spoke about how, previously, we all had felt David hadn't had the full life we all felt we had been privileged to.
But how our opinions had changed today in the beautiful simple service in his beloved church.
David has had a wonderful life and was loved by all of us.