Today has been a funny sort of day. This afternoon we had a Service of Celebration for my Mum at the church she attended for many years.
We reckon that there was about 400 people there and it was just wonderful. My Dad held up well and my sister and I managed to get up and say something without completely losing the plot.
My Mum was amazing and so many people wanted to come and pay their respects and share in the celebration for her life. The service was about Mum and Jesus, but the service also focussed on Mum’s work with Compassion UK which is a Christian Child Sponsorship Programme. Mum and Dad were both Compassion Advocates and visited several of their children in Africa. It is hoped that through Compassion a fund will be established which will be used to fund an educational programme in Burkina Faso. We are determined that Mum’s life, and premature death will not be in vain and that many children will benefit from her.
I have to admit that our children were perfectly distracting throughout the service, climbing up on the stage and entertaining us all. They helped to prevent us from being overwhelmingly sad. They are today’s picture with the beautiful flowers in the background.
So, to finish, here is pretty much my entire eulogy, minus a little but where I adlibbed!
“Louise and I wrote these little tributes to Mum quite independently, and so much of it overlapped. I am not sure it is going to be possible in just a few minutes to explain how much I am going to miss my Mum.
The reality is that Mum was the glue that held our family together. She did so much that was unseen and yet she just got on and did it. Louise and I knew that we could always turn up for lunch with our children in tow and she would find time and space for us, even when we all trashed her house! Whether life was going well or whether it was proving challenging the first person I wanted to talk to was Mum.
When I finally achieved my dream of becoming a Mum myself my Mum was standing outside the delivery suite waiting to meet her new grandson. Her delight and pleasure in him was absolute and I think one of the hardest things is that she isn’t going to be around for his first birthday or to see him grow up. He will never know firsthand just how amazing she was or how much she loved him and his cousins.
The greatest thing that Mum did for me and my sister was that she provided us with unconditional love and acceptance. That’s not to say that she agreed with everything we did and said, far from it (!) but she would challenge, love and support us. We had an amazing childhood and I know she was proud of us and of Dad and we will miss her so very much.
The things I will miss most are many and varied; playing Scrabble with her, going walking with her and Edward, her roast dinners, shopping with her, lunches at her house and most of all I will just miss knowing that she is there. It is only now that I realise the things that we didn’t learn from her in time; how to make Guernsey Gache and Guernsey biscuits, how to make her loganberry jam and lots of other things – to be honest most of them are food related as usual!
I am so very proud to be her daughter. She influenced so many people throughout her lifetime and yet she would have said that she wasn’t anything special. On the contrary, she was VERY special and her influence on our lives is immeasurable.
Mum was very clear in knowing that her destiny was to be with Jesus, we just wish that she did not have to go quite so soon. I know that myself, Dad, Louise and our families will be OK. We are just not sure what that will look like without Mum who was the very centre of our lives.
Louise is right, Mum has left us a legacy of love, but that is also entwined with a legacy of family. That still goes on and that is why we will be OK.”