Life Cycle

Sombre music wound round the plain, wood panelled crematorium chapel with its dark blue velvet furnishings, muted lighting, empty seats, simple flowers and its neutral air. These provided the backdrop, waiting for the mourners to fill the space with the life and personality of the one who could no longer do it for himself.

Eighty years needed to be compressed into half an hour so they had better begin.  The music changed to his favourite organ cantata and the mourners filed in, some hesitant as to where they ranked in the life of their friend, relation, colleague and thus how near the front they should venture without presumption or exposure. Soon it was obvious that finding a seat at all might be the problem as the varied, successful and complicated life about to be celebrated led to the room filling to capacity.

Finally the widow, with steady tread and head held high, walked through the ranks flanked by the eldest of their three sons and their treasured daughter.

A pause - then with measured step the casket was borne in shoulder high and draped with floral tokens which, though beautiful, were inadequate for the task of expressing the emotions of those that had sent them.

‘ This is a time of mourning but also of celebration. A time to remember and be thankful for one who achieved much, gave much and was much loved……..’. A poem, a eulogy, some music, a series of remembrances and amusing anecdotes followed, all trying to encapsulate the essence of the life now ended.

So he was remembered and celebrated, and too soon came the finality of the moment when the almost imperceptible hum of machinery began and the coffin and a visible life disappeared forever, behind the curtain.

At about the same time, on the other side of town, a tiny mewl was heard and a young man, torn with dread and anxiety dropped his hands from his head, leapt up and breathed a breath of hope.  Hardly daring to believe the encouragement on the approaching doctor’s face after all the consultations and warnings, the pain and the waiting, he was beckoned through the door. Then stepping behind the curtain, he looked down with overwhelming love and wonder on his tired, smiling wife - a new life, full of possibilities and potential, lay nestling contentedly in her arms.