The Lord Is My Shepherd

The year is just three days old and I have attended my first funeral of 2013.

News reached me the day before yesterday that one of my old shift partner Alun Hughes had died over Christmas, and it was his funeral today.

I went with my mate David Bodey, we both had Alun as a shift partner for his time at Nipa Laboratories about ten years ago.

Alun was a lovely kind and gentle man, who had a wonderful subtle wit. I managed to get him blind drunk on a last day in work one Christmas, and he ended up sat at my parents house with a Chinese takeaway. He suddenly exclaimed "Why have I got a Chinese ... I don't even like Chinese..."

My other abiding memory of Alun was when the fire alarms went off one afternoon shift. I wasn't working, but Dai Bodey was. Alun said to Dave, here we go again, I'll go and check if it isn't another false alarm. We used to have loads of them. He opened the lab fire door, which looked right down the site, to met with 50 foot flames from the bottom of the production area. He turned to Dave and said dead pan ... I don't think it's a false alarm Dave ....

Sadly Alun took his own life and was suffering from depression. There is always someone to help, and I have had enough encounters with the horrible condition that is depression to plead with anyone who reads this who knows someone or is feeling there is no hope to contact the Samaritans and talk to someone.

It was a lovely service, and I am glad our paths crossed all those years ago.