A Sad Farewell

Here we are in flaming June - really??? May was a disappointment and it doesn't look like June is going to be much better which is such a shame for everyone coming on holiday.  Today lovely Carole and Paul will arrive and next Saturday Hazel will arrive.  The long term forecast isn't overly encouraging either.  It was a grey start to accompany us on our way to a funeral in the village.

We were going to witness the long overdue funeral of Sue Westhead who used to come to our ladies lunches.  She had passed away in May of last year but due to there being no paperwork regarding a will or her final wishes she had remained unburied until today.

Fortunately we had been contacted by Lou Cunningham who was dealing with Sue's finances.  He had been trying to get in touch with her but failed so found us on the internet and saw we had a connection and so we were able to tell him about her demise and the situation whereby she was still to be buried with her husband Terry in the cemetery in Droushia.

He persisted with the authorities who allowed him to organise for her to be buried by Angel Guardians who had carried out Terry's funeral.  Terry had died exactly 8 years to the day before Sue passed away.  Lou and Maureen from Angel Guardians were going to arrange for a suitable inscription on the headstone.

There was just one other mourner, a lady called Carole who we actually knew.  We had no idea she had any connection with Sue or even how she had learned of the funeral because it had been put up on social media which is something she does not do.  Bless her she brought petals from her garden and a small bunch of flowers to mark the occasion.

I was glad we went even though we weren't close - I would have hated to think that no-one other than your financial advisor and the undertaker were there.  It has made me realise how important it is to have your will or final wishes drawn up and made known and that there is always someone who knows what you wanted.

From the funeral we went to the Droushia Heights Hotel to catch up with another ex ladies luncher, Jan and her husband Jeff.  Lovely Jan brings with her Lick-e-Lix treats for our cats.  Normally we fail miserably to catch up in person and find them hanging on the door handle but even though we had to push back the time we met because of the unexpected funeral we did meet and had a lovely hour or so catching up over a coffee.  It was rather noisy at the hotel.  There was a large group of Israelis in to celebrate a wedding.  Even though we moved into one of the corners by the fireplace and shut the sliding doors to the outside we could still here them loud and clear.  Anyway Jan and Jeff will be back again in July and we plan to go for a meal next time.  Safe travels!!!!

This evening we had been invited to Nicky and Mark's for a meal with Gail and Pete.  Huge apologies to Gail for shopping her off of this photograph but then I know she doesn't like having her photograph taken at the best of times.  In my defence I was shooting blind at this point.  Anyway we had a lovely evening.  We managed to sit outside for an initial drink until it got so windy it was impossible to keep hold of everything!

We then moved indoors for a fabulous curry evening.  I had had a phonecall first thing this morning to go and taste the satay sauce because Mark thought it was too salty.  Nicky did some remedial work to that one and then also made a second one.  I actually liked the original and the chicken satay and the spring rolls were amazing.  Nicky is a fearless cook.  She will try and make anything and now that she has her super dooper twinkly kitchen she is in heaven.

We ended the evening by sitting outside again.  Balmy it was not, the females in the group were perfectly fine being of a certain age but Pete feels the cold so he snuggled up with a blanket as we rounded off the evening with some fairly lethal home-made liquers!!!!

It was by Kirby and Wiseman standards a very late night - we got home at 11.00pm which is practically unheard of.  We have a quiet day planned for tomorrow so we knew that we could have a lie-in providing the cats were in on the plan!