Time to say goodbye
The time every family member dreads coming, having to say goodbye to a parent. Well that time for our family came on 29th April 2022 the funeral for our mother Lorraine Joan Grosvenor 15th August 1932 ~ 11th April 2022. I would like to think Mum had lived a full life, she loved her family and lived for them, with 5 children, 10 grand children and 10 great grand children, married to the love of her life Gordon Grosvenor for 71 odd years, “I think she achieved a remarkable life in the 89 years”
Leading up to the funeral was a very stressful time for all, funeral details to arrange for the service, you may not think so, but meeting with the funeral home, celebrate to go over your loved ones life, picking out book marks, selecting music for the service, photos for slide show, a nice coffin, flowers, and all the paper work was just a constant reminder of what had happen. For me personally I found this very hard as I’m a very emotional person at the best of times, but I tired to put on a brave face, not always with success’s.
All this is so you can make sure you send your loved one off in the best possible way, as they deserve the absolute best on this particular day, this is all we can do now, nothing else matters any more. Mum always did the absolute best she could all of her life for all of us, this is the least we can do in return.
Friday 29th April 9.30am was viewing time for family and friends that wished to pay there last respects before the service commenced, we all arrived and in small groups went to say goodbye to Mum, she looked very peaceful in her beautiful white coffin, it was very hard to hold back a few tears at this point I’m sure everyone felt the same way. After we all paid our respects and said our goodbye’s, we left the chapel so the coffin could be closed for the service to start. The music started playing by Johnny O’Keefe “I thank You” this was one of Mum’s favourite singers, we all entered the chapel for the service.
The celebrate starter the service, she spoke of Mum’s love of her family, cooking, gardening, hard work, growing up without a father, her protective nature of Bob her step brother, Gordon her husband the love of her life that stayed by her side for 71 years. We also had family members speak of there life with Mum, Judy, Leesa, Ethan, Ethan read a letter from Sharon and Haylee, all spoke from the heart as these were all loving words of a mother, Nanna or Grandma that had been a huge part of there lives growing up.
Dad was at the funeral of cause, but with his dementia being short term memory lost we where not sure how he would take it, as his reaction the morning Mum passed away was a little strange, maybe it was just the shock of it all, sitting in the front row looking at a coffin with a picture of Lorraine on it, he knew what was going on as the expression on his face said it all. We had a lovely slide show of pictures of Mum and her family over the 89 years of her life. After the service was over, we all got up to place a sprig of rosemary on the coffin before walking out, sitting in the lounge area you could see Dad was very upset and confused, but like this dementia has shown us this was very short lived, after a cup of tea in around 10 minutes he had forgotten about the last 50 minutes at Lorraine’s funeral service. I guess in one way this is a good thing, but extremely hard to watch and deal with.
Every one chatted with relatives that we had not seen for many years, maybe not since the last funeral, this is quite sad, but just goes to show how all our lives have become so busy that we only meet at funerals to show our respects. Most of the family then went to Man-doon estate in Caversham for lunch and continue to talk about stories of Mum and how she impacted our lives and growing up.
”Well its time to say goodbye for now Mum, but your for ever in our hearts and memories”
”I hope we did a good job Mum, love you always”