Gravestone

Rain was awful on the way to the funeral. We left at 10:30am and on the way we played along it’s Ken Bruce’s Popmaster and I did a little bit of email and some Slack messages with work. We pulled up in just ahead of some other family members. It's always nice to see them, but not under these circumstances.

The funeral for Uncle Dick, or Richard as it was shown on screen, was at Noon. The celebrant was multi-faith and very inclusive of all, and no, beliefs.  I am quite impressed that they can talk a great deal about people they’ve never met.

After the ceremony we all went to The Owls at Standish for a sit down meal. I had a fish and chips type of thing which was nice. There were photographs from his life around the room. I was particularly taken with the one of him and his father in the butcher’s shop because my earliest memories are of Uncle Dick in the butcher’s shop when it was closed on Wednesday afternoons, where Nan and Aunty Frances were scrubbing the worktops.

Afterwards, Mum and Dad took me to Hinckley Cemetery to see Nan and PA’s grave (shown in this photograph) as I have never seen it before. We tidied it up a little and left a plant on it and on Aunty Lilian’s grave afterwards. The on to Wigan North Western Station where we sat in the coffee shop on Platform 4 until my train arrived.