The funeral went really well. The interment was first, and although it rained briefly as we carried the coffin to the grave, it soon eased off. It was a bit windy though. The coffin wasn't actually lowered into the grave as apparently there were problems with groundwater or something, so we headed off to the service straight after the pastor had said his bit.



The service itself as OK, apart from the pastor who kept pronouncing Dad's name as "Charles EmtAHHHge". I'm not sure what the background of the name Emtage is, but we've always pronounced it 'emm-tijj', and I would have thought the pastor would have know Dad well enough, or have made enough effort to get it right.



I stood through a couple of hymns, but Shawna made a nice speech remembering happy things about her grandad. Gary Weeks then described how he'd been in to see Dad at 6am on the morning he died, which was a nice story, and then he and his wife sang a hymn. Finally, the pastor gave his sermon, and turned it into a fire-and-brimstone call to the heathens in the audience that now would be a good time to convert...



It's fun being the only atheist in the room :)



Afterwards, there was a reception in the church basement, where I met more of Aunty Olive's clan. There seem to be so few relations on Dad's side. I went out to have a cigarette, and found that the wind had picked up, and dark clouds were on the horizon. I went inside, and next thing, the rain was hammering on the windows, the lights went out, and we were in the middle of a storm. By the time we got out, there were trees blown down into the road, and the traffic lights were out for most of the way home.



Well, I'm a couple of days behind but I'll try and catch up shortly now that things have quietened down.

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