Saturday 23rd November.

Well, we gave her a really good send off. The church was packed to the gunwales, we pretty much filled the space at Blackbrook House too, and the collection raised well over £2000 (see above). Well done everyone.

The service was lovely, her three siblings spoke about their sister, and Vicki spoke about her step-mum. Vicki’s was the most emotional bit and part way through she said “I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry” and a friend said afterwards that her reaction had been “Well, the rest of us are bawling, why shouldn’t you be?”.

Julia, along with her partner Bobbie, sang Pie Jesu and a song called Softly. They agreed that there was no way they were going to be able to perform it live, so had it recorded. This enabled me to put a slide show to it, which finished with the shot above, from her trip to America as a student. Liz is walking away from the camera across the Golden Gate Bridge, waving goodbye. The combination of the song, and the picture ensured that there was not a dry eye in the house.

Liz had chosen all the hymns and the readings, so it will have been exactly what she wanted. It was a lovely service.

The service at the crematorium was just desperately, desperately sad and even the (unexpectedly) uplifting effect of Ron’s words was not enough to stop copious tears from everyone.

The gathering at Blackbrook though was quite different. As I said in my welcoming speech, at the church and the crem, we mourned the loss, but at Blackbrook we celebrated the love, the laughter, and the happiness that Liz brought wherever she went. The food was wonderful, the company convivial, and there was a lot of laughter – just what Liz had always said she wanted.

All round, a great send off. Thank you all for your contributions.