Celebrating Ray

M and I helped serve tea and coffee to around 200 folk after a thanksgiving service celebrating the life of a very dear man in our church, Ray Thorne, born 18th May 1932.

The sadness is especially for his wife - he met Mavis at a dance when he was 17, and she was 15, and they have been together ever since - as our minister said, they were like strawberries and cream or bangers and mash.

He was so loved because he was so loving - always a big hug, a kiss for the ladies, and a joke - and always brimming over with the love he had for God. He was also always impeccably dressed - all his working life he had worked in gentlemen's outfitters. His faith came alive for him at the Billy Graham rally in Aston Villa Park in 1984 (which I worked at).