Golden

Backblipping after a long day and late night. The funeral could not have gone better. The church in the morning was almost full and friends of S and R, a singer and a guitarist, had come to do musical interludes. Their neighbour M got plaudits from everyone for reading his tribute to R in French and then reading his Google Translate version in English (which he doesn't speak apart from a few words).

After the service we went to H and K's house for refreshments before travelling to  the crematorium. This was a great counterpoint to the church service, informal and with a sense of humour, just as R would have liked it. All the British people sang along to the last piece of music. Outside afterwards, I tried to explain it to our French friends. Me: "Well, it's from a film called Life of Brian, but really it's based on the life of Jesus and it's a comedy. That's the song they sing while they're being crucified: Toujours regarder la vie du bon côté". Them: "???". R had actually said in the past that he wanted this played at his funeral. I did however decide not to explain the extract  from the dead parrot sketch that had featured earlier.

It was a lovely sunny day. In the evening we reconvened at H and K's for a wake, one that R would have enjoyed too, with a mingling of British and French. I was  taken unawares when one of R's oldest friends approached me with a large wad of paper and asked me to translate his speech on the fly. But it went well; there were plenty of visual aids such as gestures of pints being downed. All in all, it was a good day, a mark of how well liked S and R are in the village. His good humour and love of life will be missed.