Love Of Her Life

Many, many people from all walks and generations of life gathered to honour the life of Sandy Parr, better known to all of us as His Lordship, the recently-departed husband of our very own Lady Findhorn. The day dawned grey and dry with a cutting wind. All Sandy's supporters huddled in the waiting room of the crematorium, many of the older men, not surprisingly, of a straight-backed, military bearing. Fellow-blipper, MsGable, recognised me and we had a lovely chat before crossing to the sanctuary. It was an uplifting service whose leader firstly shared an account of HL's impressive life spanning his school days, his Gordon Highlander exploits in Malaya, the taking over of his father's business, designing his own house in the country near Dundee, his caring for his first wife through her illness that led to a premature death, the courageous and determined refocusing of his life in Edinburgh and the joyful second flowering of love with Lady Findhorn, twenty two years ago, with vignettes of the many aspects of the wonderful life they shared - running, cycling and travelling to the fore, including special mention of the memories of their time in the US visiting other dearly-held blippers.

I will also remember the small things that punctuated the day: the simplicity of the reed-woven casket; the flickering of the sentinel candles; the moving of the sanctuary divider panels to let more people in; HL's daughter's eulogy so full of honesty and voice-trembling gratitude and love; his step-daughter's, also heartfelt, eulogy full of dry wit evoking his own; the small touch on the arm shared between them as they passed close on the way back from the lecturn; the vibrant power of HL's hill-walking friend whose own eulogy brought home the freedom and camaraderie they enjoyed in the Biggar hills where in HL's own words (slightly paraphrased) their 'spirits soared to the thrill of the West wind's long remembered song', the grey-suited Lady Findhorn (with a rainbow-kissed blouse below) sitting with her head bowed in those last private moments of the committal, as the sun, on cue, shone forth and splashed a whole artists palette of colour through the stained glass windows onto the turquoise wall hanging - a last aesthetic flourish for a man of such artistic sensitivities. And who there will ever forget his daughter sharing that throughout his life, until the very end, he would get up, get dressed, immaculately make his bed and stand ready to meet the day having made the very best of starts. We can all take inspiration from that.

After the pleasure of meeting many of LF's family and friends during a purvey in the Braid's Hotel, I stopped at Edinburgh Castle, managing to persuade the gatekeeper to let me park on the esplanade for today's blip. The castle has a long association with the Gordon Highlanders and I thought it would make a fitting final salute to Sandy.



For those who like Queen, here's 'Love Of My Life' . . .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp2dF2RjU-0