Standing Room Only!

This morning was the funeral of old family friend, Keith Wall. So in the space of 10 days, I've visited Yardley Crematorium twice.

We drove up the artery road from Stockfield Road to the chapel, and had no idea what awaited us, as the area was packed with people waiting for the hearse. As we slowly filed in, the main chapel room became full and the overspill went up the stairs to the balcony. 170 people must've turned out to pay their respects. Keith's casket was draped in The Union Flag, and he had Two flag bearers to accompany him to his final destination. In the service, between the two hymns, daughter Angela gave us a thorough and deeply touching speech, to which the mourners gave a rapturous ovation. Incidentally, it was really nice to see the cheeky smiling Nigel after 40 years. At the committal, we heard a recording of a sole bugle playing "The Last Post" and "The Rouse" separated by a minute silence. I'd never seen this before in real life and it was most moving. As we left the chapel, the lump in my throat doubled as Frank Sinatra sang "My Way".

Earlier back at Muriel's house, we'd seen hundreds of sympathy cards too, overtaking every inch of shelving space in the extended living room.

Keith (as we know) was obviously very very well liked and will be greatly missed by so many of us.

DTW 20/4/2009

[An apology to the family: In my previous blog, I'd incorrectly identified the cause of Keith's death as MRSA. This was wrong, although Vasculitis can be caused by many factors including MRSA]