“Goodbye Dad”
The funeral service for my Dad was on Monday afternoon. Attendance at the 427 year old St. Columba’s church was one of the highest in recent years. Walking into the church after so many years to see the coffin, flowers, all those people, and the pictures of Dad with family rotating on the screen was quite overwhelming. Family in the front row did a good job of keeping it together. The kids in the second row not so much – lot of emotions there. Here’s the order of service:
George Lind, previously the minister at St. Columba’s and who presided at Heather’s wedding, did a very nice job with the service. Much more meaningful because he had been Dad’s friend for many years. George included all the notes that Elspeth, myself and the family had provided in his eulogy. That meant we were all quite familiar with the material, but I’m sure some of it was new for the rest of the attendees.
Here’s the announcements that were included in the order of service from the service last Sunday:
Here’s some more about the history of St. Columba’s:
“The building of 1696 was small and the unpretentious spire remaining today was then in the centre of the place. The only other part of that church still standing is the Corsehill Aisle. The Lainshaw Aisle is built in line with the Corsehill one and may not be of much later date. In 1772 the roof was removed and the walls heightened. The minister of that time wrote: – “it is now well seated and holds a great number.” This minister may have been well pleased with his renovated Kirk, but his feelings were ruffled over the conditions of the manse. It had been built in 1642, fifty years before the church. The minister stated that, although it had some small repairs at different times, it was still in a “very bad condition.” That can be easily understood because the manses of those far-off days were usually small and thatched-roofed with not much more accommodation than the traditional but-and-ben.”
If you’d like to read more about the history, there’s a lot more information here:
https://stewartonstcolumbas.org/about-us/
After the service, we made the short trip to the crematorium in Dreghorn. I was interested to hear George say that the hymn sung there, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, was one of Dad’s favourites and he had signed that one in a hymn book George had when he retired.
The organist at the church was excellent. I only know that he is Joe, don’t know his last name. He had been out with knee trouble and we were fortunate to have him for the service. Joe also made the journey to the crematorium and played that favourite hymn.
There was a very chilly wind for the receiving line outside the crematorium, and there were a lot of people to thank for attending. It felt good to get back in the warm limo for the short ride to the Fenwick hotel.
There had been a lot of concern about how many people would arrive at the Fenwick. It’s so hard to predict with weather and other plans. Apparently my sister and Mum guessed perfectly – we had seven tables of ten, and that was exactly what we needed. The funeral tea was very nice – I got to talk to Mrs. Dunlop, Dr. Bob Dunlop, Cousin Jean, Wee Jean, The Barclays (May and Les), Robin and Julie, Lorna and Russell (what a wonderful set of couples), George and Audrey, Caroline and Jim, Christopher, and several others. My Mum and Dad have so many lovely friends.
Mum seemed pleased with the events of the day – which is what’s most important.
To finish off this section, here’s what was published in The Herald about Dad:
Elspeth and David stayed overnight and hung out with us on Tuesday morning. We enjoyed lunch together and then they left for Aberdeen. In the afternoon Mum and I tackled the cryptic crossword without the group think. We made relatively quick work of what seemed like an easier than normal puzzle – maybe we were just warmed up from all the chatter over the weekend.
Before they left, we looked through an art portfolio of Dad’s and I selected a couple of paintings to bring back. I just love this one of a guy fishing.
I came to understand how much better my sister’s memory is than mine. We were talking about a trip to Forfar for a Golden wedding on Monday night. She described the dress she was wearing (at the age of maybe 8), the dessert, the box of chocolates she won – what? I remember very little other than we drove through a snow storm and Dad thought it was a good idea to overtake the snow plough. There were many other topics during the weekend where I realized that Elspeth has a much better recollection of everything than I do. A bit disturbing.
We left for Glasgow airport early on Wednesday morning. Our flight to Heathrow was delayed by about 45 minutes, but we still had plenty of time to make the Dallas flight. On arrival we were delighted (sarcasm again) to find that there was no jet bridge and we had to descend the stairs with suitcases and ride a bus to Terminal 5. After wandering through the terminal for about 20 minutes, we made our way to the bus to Terminal 3. Another 20 minutes or so and we were relaxing in the British Airways First Class Lounge – one of the advantages of flying so much on American Airlines. Diana enjoyed the Champagne Lounge for 20 minutes and then it was time to head for our Dallas flight.
We rested up a lot on Thursday and Friday, and it was time to venture out in the cold on Saturday. We enjoyed a yummy but sad lunch at the Blue Goose. The usual sour cream chicken enchiladas for me, and chicken and shrimp fajitas for Diana.
“That does look yummy, but why sad?”, you ask. Well, today is the last day of operation for the Blue Goose at this original location. A lease dispute has brought the 39 year run to an end. Very sad indeed. I’ve been eating there since 1986.
Diana’s meal came with the fresh made tortillas from the inhouse machine:
We enjoyed a walk in the brisk weather this morning, and I’m now relaxing with golf and March Madness NCAA basketball.
My book this week was “Britt-Marie Was Here” by Frederick Backman. I bought this at the Book Nook in Stewarton and have thoroughly enjoyed the humour and care of this story. Here’s the online summary:
“Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention.
But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs.”
The story started out well and then fell into a bit of repetition about Britt-Marie’s habits. I was getting disappointed and then it quickly picked up again, with the main section on the Borg characters and coaching the soccer team finishing very strongly.
I enjoyed a couple of albums while writing some of this post on the flight from London to Dallas. The first is the latest from the wonderful Avett Brothers:
And then the latest from Samantha Fish – a wonderful modern blues guitarist:
And let’s close out with one of Dad’s favourites:
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!