Well I can’t say it wasn’t very emotional because it was.
It was also fantastic to be surrounded by so many members of my family, including the two honorary sisters. My parents are both the youngest and only surviving members of their siblings and both sides of the two families were well represented.
The arrangements all went well – apart from me arriving at the wrong hotel on the Friday evening - panicking myself and the hotel staff by saying ‘What do you mean you have got a group booking for this weekend!’ As I was the one who had found the hotel and done all the arrangements up to the point of Chris’s death it was pretty stupid of me to get the wrong hotel!
The weather was perfect, the hotel was lovely, the dinner was just right including all the speeches and slide shows. Ali made a lovely speech at the beginning about remembering loved ones who weren’t with us – very powerful coming from Michael’s father. Jimmy and me had a good sob but it got it over with. Everyone there was thinking about Chris but all of us had other people to remember .
Being so emotionally raw led to some amazing discussions particularly with the Devon cousins and Evie one of the honorary sisters. Sandy collapsing at the end of the evening and spending the night in hospital added a scary Klimt moment to the proceedings. Today he was fine which is good.
Families have lots of layers and a very special weekend like this one has enabled all of us to understand and appreciate the importance of making time and cherishing our loved ones. My Mum and Dad had a great time which was really, really good.
