DAVID'S ROSE

We had a great service at Church this morning and although I sat down for most of the songs, I just had to stand up for this one, entitled "The Blessing."

When we got home from Church, I had a gentle wander around the garden and found this beautiful rose, which we bought many years ago, to remember David Lilley, a dear friend of ours, a dear father, a wonderful actor and a “gentle” man, who died on 22nd December 2005.  I have no idea of the real name of the rose, but "David's Rose" is good enough for us.

I had worked with David's wife, Brenda, and in fact, their son, James, was born just after our first son, so we were "new Mums" together and enjoyed a lovely friendship from 1971 when our sons were born until she died in 1989, after a long battle with leukaemia.

After her death, I often visited David during my lunch hour, as he lived quite near to where I worked and we would often reminisce about Brenda and their time together in local amateur dramatics in the town.  I was very upset to hear from him in 2005 that he had terminal cancer, but he showed the same determination and courage as he had when Brenda had been so ill and then died.

After David's death, his son, James, handed me a birthday card, in which was a cheque for £60 - a gift for my 60th birthday from his Dad - so I decided to buy an iPod and the first ever song I bought was "Time to Say Goodbye" by Andrea Bocelli and I used to listen to it a lot.

At the end of the Service of Celebration for David on 2nd January 2006, we were asked to sit quietly and reflect on our relationship with David, as the song "Time to Say Goodbye" was played - you can imagine how I felt, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the Church that day.

I found the obituary for David in our local paper, and this quote, written in 1714, captures the essence of his spirit:

"The appellation of gentleman
     is never to be affixed
          to a man's circumstances,
but to his behaviour in them.”
Sir Richard Steele

P.S.  Please don't feel you have to comment on my Blips - I realise I haven't been very good at commenting lately - in fact, I slept a lot of the day yesterday after my "Trolley Dolly" walk and the fact that I was taking stronger painkillers - I am, however, grateful for all your good wishes, stars and hearts.