A sad goodbye...

Today was my Uncle Alan's funeral and as it was down in Worthing, in Sussex, we had to leave home at 6.30am to make sure we got there in time.

The weather forecast had been for snow so I was very pleased to look out of the window first thing and see just rain. I collected Mum and Dad and we set off with the superior Gladys giving us directions.

The M1 was very busy and the M25 even more so, but we made good time and stopped about 15 miles from Worthing for breakfast at a McDonald's. Not my ideal choice but there was a dearth of good eateries on the A24 so we had to make do! After a coffee we all felt more perky and carried on, passing the crematorium exactly one hour before the funeral was to take place.

As we had an hour to spare we called around to my Aunt's house where a lot of my cousins were assembled. My Aunt Pat looked very pale and sad but she put on a brave face and we all set off in convoy back to the crematorium. I gave my Aunt Joyce a lift and we chatted about her ex-husband, my Dad's brother who said he would be going to the funeral as well. She was not looking forward to seeing him and his second wife at all.

The earlier rain had given way to blue skies and sunshine and it was a really beautiful day. The service was lovely and my cousin Kim did his Dad proud with a very moving and, at times, humourous eulogy. Afterwards we stood around and chatted in the sun and then we all travelled back to my Aunt's village for some refreshments at the church hall.

I met up with my Uncle David (Joyce's husband) and we had a quick chat before going into the hall. My Dad had unfortunately fallen out with him some years back and hadn't really been in touch since, so it could all have been very awkward! Families, eh?!

However, David and his wife Karen got chatting to us and spent the next hour sitting with us while we ate some of the lovely sandwiches that had been prepared. There was no awkwardness at all but I did feel uncomfortable that we'd seemingly abandoned my Aunt Joyce who was sitting as far away from her ex-husband as she could! My Uncle David had always been my favourite uncle and it had been a shame that there had been so much unpleasantness when he divorced Joyce. I told him that we'd seen an old photo of him when he was much younger and there was a huge resemblance between him and my son Mikey.

We left at about 2pm after collecting five bags of Uncle Alan's clothes from the house. They're all going to the British Heart Foundation shop in Northampton so we hope they'll raise lots of money for this cause. It was really sad seeing them being loaded into the back of my car.

We had a good journey home and arrived back in Northampton at 5pm, just in time for the evening rush hour! I sat and had a drink with Keith and chatted about the day before having a delicious roast chicken dinner. It had been a long day but it had been great to catch up with my relatives, most of whom I don't see very often!