At the end of January we said goodbye to our mother Dawn. I wanted a sombre burial service at the cemetery, which we had, after a careful planning….my brother Matthew and I leading the procession down to a chosen place in the cemetery, we even helped her to rest wearing black gloves. I remember hearing young children in a playground not a 100 metres away, but many decades away from where our mum now rests. There were flowers and tears, and a reassuring number of friends, both hers and ours. But I wanted the church service to be at St.Lukes, the place my mother had been going to since we were children and so it was. I curated an exhibition of photos, “Dawn through the Decades”, a detailed Order of Service, her watercolour artworks on a screen, a selection of books of hers, given away with specially designed “Dawn” bookmarks, “Amazing Grace” was sung for her, I made a speech, my brother a eulogy, Gemma read a poem written by a neighbour about Dawn when she was two. I also acknowledged friends of our mum, some present, some also passed away. We remembered our mum, but also the person she was outside of being just our mum, a window dresser in Bond st in her early life, a flower arranger, pianist, gardener, book lover, watercolour artist, animal lover, and friend to so many. Like a wedding, it flashed by, these photos are all we have. My brother wanted to play his song “Aftermath” with his band mates, Matt, and Hope on piano. You can hear the original song above. The refrain runs “they’ve left the building now…”. It felt appropriate… we gave her a beautiful send off in the place she attended for decades, and Michael the priest acknowledged this, for he also knew her well. It was as much closure as we could have asked for in this temporary illusion we call life, and it’s left me wanting more of the illusion. There are roses where she now lies, and the booklets and bookmarks to remind us. “These former things are passed away” Revelation. “…. Another life begins today”. Maybe it did, we won’t ever know. She passed away on Christmas Eve, and so, from now on, for us, it will be a Christmas Dawn. JA ps thanks to
@gempreciousdj and
@flissib for the tea and sympathy
