In Loving Memory

 

Peter's service went well. I allowed plenty of time because of all the roadworks along the A47 and arrived 20 minutes early. I stood under the trees chatting with Roger [aka Spronk], who had known Pete since Primary School. Like me, he did not really know anyone else there apart from the immediate family. The Yarmouth Crem is relatively modern, light and bright, with comfortable seating!
Daphne had written a piece about her brother's life - growing up, his love of motorbikes, [shared with his best friend Spronk], his work on the ambulance crews, his love of dogs, and in retirement his unwavering support for LIB Dog Rescue. His great nephew gave a lovely tribute to the man himself - how everyone had loved Uncle Pete. 
Roger and I sat together in the chapel and again at the Wake - mostly discussing motorbikes. Well, he talked about all the bikes he and Peter had owned, and I added relevant comments where I could. I never did pluck up the nerve to ask him why he was nicknamed Spronk  though.
One older relation was looking at me with that "I ought to know you..." expression. I smiled and said "I'm Angela, Hilda and Stan's daughter" "Of course!" he replied. Then his daughter said "I was at your wedding, it was brilliant, Uncle Stan conducted it, and the balcony upstairs was full. Everyone was happy and the music was good" She can only have been about 10 at the time. But I fully agreed with her description. 
Lots of Pete's LIB friends were there - and said they should have brought the dogs to form a guard of honour outside the Crem [possibly not....] They'd printed out lots of lovely photos of Pete-with-rescue-dogs which had been on their Facebook page in recent days.
Happy memories